
Book __L-. 



I } 6 -^ 




ixr 





. (^ , /7r//^r^^ 



MEMOIR 



THE LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 



OF 



JOHN CHARLES FREIOIVT, 



INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF HIS BXPLORATIOXS, DISCOVERIES AND ADVENTURES ON FIVB 

SUCCESSIVE EXPEDIH0N3 ACROSS THE NORTH AMERICAN CONTINENT; VOLUMINOUS 

SELECTIONS FROM HIS PRIVATB AND PUBLIC CORRESPONDENCE; HIS 

DEFENCE BEFORE THE COURT MARTIAL, AND FULL REPORTS 

OF HIS PRINCIPAL SPEECHES IN THE SENATE 

OF THE UNITED STATES. 



BY JOHN BIGELOW. 



WITH SPIRITED ILLUSTRATIONS, AND AN ACCURATE PORTRAIT ON STEEL. 






"^ e ^^^ ---^ 

f NEW YORK: 
DERBY & JACKSON, 119 NASSAU ST. 

H. W. DERBY & CO., CINCINNATI. 
1856. 






KVTBftBD according to Act of Con^tjsa, in the renr 1866. by 
DERBY 4 JACKSON, 
b ttu Clark's Office of the Diatiict Court of ibe United States, for the Scutbem Dittri.-t of N'«w York. 






^^ 



W. U, TwioN, Surfotyper. 



ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



THIS MEMOIR OF ONE WHOSB 



GENIUS HE WAS AMONG TOE FIRST TO DISCOVER AND ACKNOWLEDHE, 



IS RESPECTFDLLT INSCRIBED BY 



THE AUTHOR. 



V 



P E E F A C E. 



The engrossing and universal interest recently awakened, in 
the subject of this memoir, by the presentation of his name as 
a candidate for the Presidency, is the author's apology for the 
faults of hasty preparation, which appear in the following pages. 
He felt, however, that the public were more concerned with the 
matter than the manner of his work, and would pardon almost 
anything in its execution more readily than delay. Under this 
impression he has aimed at but two results — fullness and accu- 
racy. He has endeavored to lay before the reader every event 
in the life of Col. Fremont, and the substance of every letter, 
report, or speech of a public character that he has written or 
made, having a tendency to enlighten the country in regard to 
his quahfications for the highest honors of* the Eepublic. The 
author is not conscious of having suppressed anything that ought 
to have been revealed, or of having stated a single fact which he 
did not believe to be susceptible of proof. To escape the sus- 
picions, however, to which a biography of a presidential candi- 
date is necessarily exposed, he has uniformly given official doc- 
uments and contemporary evidence of the events he records, 
whenever it was practicable, that his readers may have as little 
trouble as possible in adjusting the measure of allowance to be 



VI PBEFACE. 

made for the partialities of political or personal friendship. A 
glance at the following pages will satisfy the most cursory ob- 
server that it is no mere eulogy, but a faithful record of the 
life of Colonel Fremont, prepared, if not with skill and elegance, 
at least with diligence and a conscientious regard for truth. 
He regrets that the brief time allowed for its preparation, and 
t\^ pxessui'e of engrossing professional duties have prevented i 
his making it kss unwoxtjiy of its subject. J 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. ^**" 

Parentage, Birth and Education, ...........U 

CHAPTER n. 
Chooses his Profession — Marries Jessie Benton, ........ 80 

CHAPTER m. 

First Exploring Expedition— Explores the South Pass — Plants the American Flag 
on the highest Peak of the Rocky Mountains — Speech of Senator Linut . . .85 

CHAPTER TV. 

Second Exploring Expedition — Kit Carson — Mrs. Fremont withholds Orders from 
the War Department — Colonel Benton's Account of the Expedition — Discovers the 
Inland Sea — Perilous Voyage to its Islands in a linen Boat — Arrives at Fort Van- 
couver and fulfills the Instructions of his Government, 69 

CHAPTER V. 

Second Exploring Expedition continued — Sets out from Fort Vancouver — Interest* 
ing Indian Council — Speech of Col. Fremont — Journey through the Mountains — 
Insanity of his Men from Privation and Cold — Piauas loses his Way — Arrival at 

the Ranche of Captain Sutter, ii 

VU 



TUl CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VI. 



Second Exploring Expedition concludeil— Encamps among the Digger Indians — 
Ttieir liubits and Character — Massacre of Tal)eau — Recovery of his Remains— 
Beturn to Utah Lake — Analysis of the Results of the Expedition by its Coramand- 



110 



CHAPTER Vn. 

Third Expedition — First Visit to Mariposas — Strange Phases of Indian Life — Fight 
with Horse-thief Indians — Loses all his Cattle in the Snow — Hostile Message from 
Governor Castro — Hoists the American Flag in California — Col. Benton's Account 
of the Conquest of California— Kit Carson's Account of a Night Attack by a Part/ 
of Tlamath Indians— Pardon of Pico— Secretary Marcy's Account of the Conquest 
of California — Establishes the Independence of Cahfornia, 123 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Conquest of California completed — Joins Commodore Stockton — Description of his 
Party on its arrival at Monterey — Organizes the California BattaUon — Is appointed 
Major — Origin of the Controversy between Commodore Stockton and Brigadier- 
General Kearney — Commodore Stockton's report of the Conquest of South Cali- 
fornia — Insurrection of the Wali-lah-wah-lah Indians quelled — Capitulation of 
Oouenga — Fremont Governor of California, 158 



•CHAPTER IX. 

Origin of the Controversy between Col. Fremont and General Kearney — Is ordered 
by General Kearney not to re-organize the California Battalion — His Reply — 
General Kearney claims the Command of the Californian Army — Commodore 
Stockton refuses to yield it — Their Correspondence — New Instructions from Wash- 
ington — Kearney takes the Command — Fremont is ordered Home — Hostile Corres- 
pondence with Col. Mason — Arrested at Fort Leavenworth — Invited to a Public 
Dinner at St. Louis — Letter declining the Invitation — Arrives at Washington, . If9 



CHAPTER X.. 

Fremont arrives at Washington— Demands a Court Martial— Illness and Death of 
his Mother — Court Martial ordered — Its Organization and Progress— Fremont's 
Defence— Verdict of the Court — Sentence remitted by the President — Resigns his 
OouuaiggieB and retires from th« Army, .217 



CONTENTS. IX 



CHAPTER XI. 



Colonel Fremont projects a fourth Exploring Expedition— California Claims BUI — 
Speeclies of Senators Benton, Clarke and Dix — .Map and Geograpliical Memoir — 
Report of Senator Breese — Professor Torrey's Plantae Fremontianae — Golden 
Medal from the King of Prussia — Letter from Humboldt — Founder's Medal from 
the Royal Geograpliical Society of London — Letters from John M. Clayton and 
Abbott Lawrence — Reply of Col. Fremont, 319 



CHAPTER XU. 
Correspondence between Col. Fremont and Captain Charles Wilkes, . . . 884 

CHAPTER Xin. 

Fourth Expedition — Encamped In Kansas — Terrible Journey through the Mountain* 
— Frightful Snow Storm — One hundred and twenty Mules frozen to Death in one 
Night — Starvation of his Comrades — Meets an unexpected Friend — Reaches the 
Ranche of Kit Carson — Thrilling Letter to his Wife — Adventure with Navahoes 
Indians, "^ 85T 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Fremont settles in Mariposas — Cause of Indian Hostilities — Title to Mariposa*— 
Original Deed of the Estate — Title questioned and resisted by Caleb Cushing — 
Confirmed by the U. S. Supreme Court — Opinion of Chief Justice Taney — Receive* 
the appointment of Mexican Boundary Commissioner — His Magnanimity to 
Colonel Weller — First political Letter— Elected to the United States Senate, . . 879 

CHAPTER XV. 

Sails for Washington as United States Senator — Takes the Chagres Fever — ^Letter to 
the Philadelphia Pacific Railroad Convention, S98 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Fremont's Career as United States Senator— Speech on the Indian Agency Bill 

Speech on the Bill making temporary Provisions for working the Mines of Cali- 
fornia— ChaUenges Senator Foote— Foote's Retraction— Fremont's Letter about the 
Affair 4(j8 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XVn. 

Beturn to California— Illness— Candidate for re-election to the United States Senate 
— Goes to Europe— Projects his Fiftli and Last Exploring Tour— His Hanlships and 
Triumph — Letter from Parawan — Prairies on Fire — A careless Sentinel — Huerfano 
Butte— A cheerless Night— Fall of Mules down the Mountains— Tlireatened ny 
Indians — How they were repelled — Reduced to eat Horse-meat — They swear not 
to Eat each other — Freezing, Death, and Burial of Fuller — DecUnes a Pulilic Dinner 
in San Francisco — Returaa to AVashingtou, ........ 423 



CHAPTER XVUl. 

CoL Fremont comes to reside In New York— Is talked of for the Presidency— Letter 
to Gov. Robinson of Kansas — Letter to a Public Meeting in New York upon the 
Subject of Troubles in Kansas — Is nominated for the Presidency by the National 
Republican Convention — Letter of Acceptance— Letter accepting the Nominaiioa 
of tlie " £iatioual AmeiicaiiSi" 446 



CHAPTER XTX. 
Ooneltuion, <.. 461 

APPENDIX, . . 467 



THE LIFE 



JOHN CHARLES FREMONT. 



CHAPTER I. 

PARENTAGE, BIRTH AND EDTJCATIOIT. 

In the social disruptions of the French Revolution, 
many broken fortunes were replanted in America, and 
in the words of Chateaubriand, then himself a wanderer 
in our country, "the names of settlements in the United 
States became a touching record of the wrecks of 
European homes." What seemed then only an adverse 
stroke of fortune to those upon whom it fell, proved the 
establishment of many prosperous families — the seed 
scattered by the storm bearing a hundred fold on the 
ricli soil of the New AVorld. 

During this time, a passenger ship bound to one of 
the French West Indian possessions, was taken by an 
English man-of-war on the eve of reaching her destina- 
tion. The passengers, with the ship, were carried 
prisoners into one of the English islands, where they 
experienced the usual rigid treatment of prisoners of 
war in that day. Among them was a young French- 



12 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

man of the name of Fremont, from the neighborhood of 
Lyons, who was on his way to join an aunt in St. 
Domingo. 

Daring liis protracted captivity, M. Fremont eked out 
the scanty prison allowance by basket-making — a com- 
mon resource among the prisoners — in which his supe- 
rior taste soon enabled him to excel. Some skill in 
painting, too, procured him occasional employment in 
decorating ceilings with the frescoes which are common 
in the dweUings of the wealthier families of the tropics. 

After some years' detention, he was finally liberated 
or' escaped (the latter, it is believed), and in his endeav- 
ors to find his way homeward, finally arrived at Nor- 
folk, Virginia. Being entirely without resource for the 
farther prosecution of his homeward voyage, he gave 
lessons in his native language to the citizens of Norfolk. 
He was a man of superior accomplishments and high 
breeding, spoke English fluently, and was a welcome guest 
in the best society of the city and State. He here be- 
came acquainted with, and afterwards married, the future 
mother of John Charles Fremont. Anne Beverley, one 
of the daughters of Col. Thomas Whiting, of Gloucester 
county, an orphan, and one of the most beautiful women 
of her day in the State of Virginia. This Colonel Whit- 
ing's father was the brother of Catharine Whiting, who 
was a grand aunt of George Washington.* In her 
commenced the connection by marriage of the Whitings 
of Virginia with the most illustrious family of this, or 
perhaps of any country ; a connection subsequently 
drawn still closer by repeated matrimonial alliances. f 

* Sparks's Wasliington, vol. i., 548 ; ib. vol. v., 268 ; ib. vol. vi., 296. 
f In a brief sketch of his family descent, which General Washington 
fuinished at the request of Sir Isaac Heard, in 1*792, he says : 



BIR5H, PARENTAGE, AND EDUCATION'. 13 

Colonel Whiting, Mrs. Fremont's father, was one of 
the most wealthy and prominent men of his day in 
Virginia ; he was a leading member of the Ilouse of Bur- 
gesses, and during the Revolution was President of the 
Naval Board at Williamsburgh (then the seat of govern- 
ment), officially the most exalted position, at that time, 
in the Colony.* Prior to the revolution he had been 
king's attorney. 

'• Lawrence Washington, his eldest son (of John Washington, the 
founder of the family in this country) married Mildred Warner, daughter 
of Colonel Augustine Warner, of Gloucester county, by whom he had 
two sons, John and Augustine, and one daughter, named Mildred. He 
died in 169Y, and was interred in the family vault at Bridge's Creek. 

" John Washington, the eldest son of Lawrence and Mildred, married 
Catharine Whiting (sister of Colonel Thomas Whiting, the grandfather of 
Mrs. Fremont the elder) of Gloucester county, where he settled, died, 
and was buried. He had two sons, Warner and Henry, and three 
daughters, Mildred, Elizabeth, and Catharine, all of whom are dead. 

" Warner Washington married first Elizabeth Macon, daughter of Col. 
William Macon, of New Kent county, by whom he had one son, who is 
now hving, and bears the name of Warner. His second wife was 
Hannah, youngest daughter of the Honorable WiUiam Fairfax, by whom 
be left two sons and five daughters as follows, namely : Mildred, Hannah, 
Catharine, Elizabeth, Louisa, Fairfax and Whiting. The three eldest of 

the daughters are married, Mildred to Throckmorton, Hannah to 

Whiting, and Catharine to Nelson. After his second marriage 

he removed from Gloucester, and settled in Frederick county, where he 
died in 1791. 

" Warner Washington, his son, married Whiting, of Gloucester, 

by whom he has many sons and daughters." * * * — Sparks's Wash- 
ington, vol. i., p. 548. 

*In Henning's Statutes at Large, vol. ix., we find the following ordi- 
nance in relation to this commission : 

" Mat, 17*76. — ^Interregnum. 
"An ordinance for establishing a Board of Commissioners, to superintend 
and direct the Naval affairs of this Colony. 
" Whereas, the Naval preparations of this Colony will be carried on 



14 LIFE AND 8P;RVICE8 OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

He was also a man of large wealth, lie owned the 
whole of the land lying hetween North River and Ware 
River, in Gloucester county. His prominence as the 
president of the Naval Bcjard exposed him specially to 
the depredations of the English on the coast, notwith- 
standing which, when he died, he left eight 6ej)arate 
estates to his eight surviving children, and tliirty f/egi-oe8 
with each.* The principal residence of the family was 
at Elmington. 

with greater expedition and success if proper persons are appointed, 
whose business it sliall be particularly to superintend and direct the 
same, 

" Be it therefore ordained, by the delegates of Virginia now in General 
Convention, and it is hereby ordained by the authority of the same. That 
Thomas Whiting, John Hatchings, Champion Travis, Thomas Newton, 
Junior, and George Webb, Enquires, be, and are hereby appointed and 
declared a Board of Commissioners," &c., &c. 

* The following is a copy of Col. Whiting's will.' The estate was 
largely increased before the division took place : 

WILL OF THOMAS WHITING, GRANDFATHER OF COL. FREMONT. 

" In the name of God. Amen. I, Thomas Whiting, of the Parish of 
Abingdon, in the County of Gloucester, do make this my last will and 

testament, as followeth Imprimis, I desire all my just debts to be 

paid. I give to my son, Thomas Whiting, the land purchased of Jos. 
Devenport and Edward Howe, lying in Abington Parish and County afore- 
said, containing about six hundred acres, more or less, to him and his 
heirs. I do give unto my said son, Thomas, the houses and lots I possess 
in Glostertown, to him and his heirs. I give unto my two sons, Henry 
Whiting and Horatio Whiting, and their heirs, my two plantations, lying 
in the Parish and County aforesaid, called and known by the names, 
Hackney {ind Rumford, including the land purchased of Wm. Sawyer, 
and the land purchased of Robert Coleman's estate, jointly with Col. 
Warner Lewis — equally to be divided between them. It is my wish and 
desire, that my wife, Eliza Whiting, take her dower of my lands in those 
divided to my sons, Henry and Horatio, and not in the land diviued to 
my son Thomas ; but if she should, then I give my son Thomas, in case 



BIETH, PARENTAGE, AND EDUCATION. 15 

Col. "Whiting also enjoyed the notable distinction of 
having held the infant George Washington in his arms, 
when he was baptized, an incident which, though 



my wife should take her dower in his lands as aforesaid, his choice either to 
take the lands devised to his brothers as aforesaid, or of the lands before 
devised to him ; and if he should make choice of the Hackney and Rum- 
ford, and the other lands therewith devised, and then in such a case, I 
give the lands devised to Thomas, to the said Henry and Horatio, equally 
to be divided between thera and their heirs : in either case my son 
Thomas to have my houses and lots and Glostertown, subject to my wife's 
dower. I give unto my son, Thomas Whiting, and his heirs, thirty 
slaves, and that he may have my coachman, Porter, in his part, and boy 
Dunmore. I give to my daughter, Sarah Whiting, fifteen slaves to her 
and her heirs, and that she may have Peg, Sail's daughter, and also Har- 
riet, in her part. I give unto my daughter, Catharine Whiting, and her 
heirs, fifteen slaves, and that she may have Frank, and Patt, and her 
children, in her part. I give unto my daughter, Eliza T. Whiting, fifteen 
elaves, to her and her heirs, and that she may have in her part, mulatto 
Kate and her four children — Dinah, Molly, Will, and Dennis — and as my 
wife will have her dower in all my slaves, I desire that she may have in 
her part — that is, in her dower — three slaves, to wit : the cook Hannah, 
Abigail, Agatha, Bob, Barnaby, Ailee, and her child, Porter; Amarillis, 
Nelson, Egine, Rachel, Sue, Hannah's son Will, Isabel, Lawrane, and 
Augustie. I give unto my five youngest children, Henry, Horatio, Su- 
sanna, Jane, and Ann Whiting, all the rest of my slaves — that is, exclu- 
sive of those before devised — and my wife's dower, to them and their 
heirs, equally to be divided between them, and after my said wife's 
death. I also give unto my said five youngest children, hei-ein men- 
tioned, the slaves she may hold as her dower aforesaid, and their increase 
to them and their heirs, equally to be divided between them and their 
representatives ; and it is my desire in the division and allotment of my 
said slaves, that regard may be had to the ages and sexes of them, so as 
to make them as nearly equal in value, as may be agreeable to the 
bequest afofesaid. I give to my son Thomas, my gun, sword, books, and 
Hector ; also a mare and colt formerly given him. I do appoint my 
friends, Charles M. Thurston, guardian to my son Thomas, and daughter 
Eliza ; and do give unto the said Charles M. Thurston full power to sell 
and dispose of any part of my said son's estate, real and personal, if he 
shall judge it for my said son's interest and advantage so to do. I give 



16 LIFE AND SEEYICE8 OF JO UN C. FREMONT. 

trifling perhaps in itself, serves to show the kind of rela- 
tions sulj^isting between the two fiimilies. 

He was married three times and had fifteen children, 
eight of whom snrvived him. Ilis last wife, Elizabeth 
Sewall, by whom he had three of them, including ^nne 
Beverley, afterwards the mother of Colonel Fremont, 
survived him, and married Samuel Carey, by whom she 
had four children.* Mr. Carey managed the estate so 

unto my grandson, Thomas Hubard aud his heirs, all the lands I have in 
Petsworth Parish, in the county aforesaid. All the rest of my estate, not 
heretofore devised, I give to be equally divided among all my children, 
to wit : Thomas, Henry, Horatio, Sarah, Catharine, Eliza T., Susanna, 
Jane, and Ann Whiting. Lastly, I appoint my beloved wife, Eliza Whi- 
ting, Executrix, and my friends, Charles M. Thurston, John Page of 
Eosewell, and Warner Lewis, jun.. Executors of this my last will, hereby 
revoking all wills heretofore by me made. In witness whereof, I have 
hereunto set my hand and seal the 15th day of October, Anno Domini 
17S0. 

" Thomas Whiting." 

" Signed, sealed, published, and declared by the testator as and for hia 
last will, in presence of us, . 

Richard Cakt, 

Johanna Dcnlap, 

Robert Innis." 

* This intermarriage with the Carys, established another marital con- 
nexion between the W^hiting and the Washington families, a daughter of 
Col. Carey having married a son of Lord Fairfax, whose cousin's daughter 
married George Washington's brother, Lawrence. 

This connexion lends interest to the following extract from a letter 
written by Washington to George Wm. Fairfax in 17'i'8. 

" Lord Fairfax, as I have been told, after having been bowed down to 
the grave and in a manner shaken hands with death, is perfectly restored 
and enjoys his usual good health and as much vigor as falls to the lot of 
ninety. Miss Fairfax was upon the point of marriage in December last, 
with a relation of mine, a Mr. Whiting; but her iU health delayed it at 
that time and what has since happened I am not informed. Tour nieces 
in Alexandria are both married; the elder to Mr. Herbert, the younger 



BEBTH, PAKENTAGE, AITD EDUCATION. 17 

improvident! J" that the children by the first marriage 
were ultimatelj compelled to resort to the courts for an 
account and apportionment of the property.* 

to Mr. Harvey Whiting, son of Frank in Berkeley. Mrs. Carey, her son 
Col. Cafey, Mr. Nicholas, Mrs. Ambler and tleir respective families 
were all well about two months ago. Miss Carey is married to Thomas 
Nelson, second son to" the Secretary. * * * * 

— Sparlcs's Washington, vol. v. p. 268. 

* Among the records of the Superior Court of Chancery held in Rich- 
mond, June 13th, 1810, there is a petition and decree on file (one of the 
fruits we presume of the litigation referred to in the text), directing 
that the slave of which the said father Thomas Whiting died possess- 
ed or to which he was entitled, and the increase of the females, be divide-d 
and allotted to the several parties according to their respective rights," 
by commissioners named in the decree. The award of the commissioners, 
in itself a sufficiently curious document, runs as follows : 

" In pursuance of the above annexed decree. We the subscribers 
being commissioners named therein, have this day divided the slaves 
belonging to the estate of Thomas Whiting deceased, which were pro- 
duced to us by Robert Cowne, his executor, in the following manner, viz. : 

" To John Lowry and Susanna his wife the negroes contained in lot 
No. 1. viz : Bob $400, Coxen $400, Aggy and child Lucy |380, Augusta 
and children Billey, Harriet, Agnes and Edmond, $820. Old Betty — 
and the estimated value of negroes sold by said Lowry about six years 
ago $456. 

" To John C. Pryor, ad'm. of Henry Whiting deceased, the negroes con- 
tained in lot No. 2, viz. : Peter $400, Barnaba $333, Henry $300, Jane 
and children, Mary and an infant 10 months old, $465. Lucy and 
children Betty, Cate, Mariah, and a male infant, $730, Sarah $150, Joe 
$60, and old Frank $5. 

" To John Pryor and Ann his wife the negroes contained in lot No. 3, 
viz. : Phil $400, Black Peter $400, Peggy $300, Hannah* and children 
Stirling and Salley $580, Billey $250. Eugene $230, and the estimated 
value of a negro sold by said Pryor abput about two years ago $224, 
and to Morgan Tomkies, who it appears is entitled to the interest of 
Charles Grymes and Jane his wife, the negroes contained in lot No. 4, 

♦ The slave Hannah mentioned in the above list wa» aftei'wards Colonel Fremont's 
nurse. 



18 . LIFE AND SEKVICE8 OF JOHN' C. FREMONT. 

viz. : Frank $400, Black Pliil $400, Nelly $300. Venus and children, 
Kitty, Daniel, Charles and Phil $880, Daniel $250. Alice $150, and 
Gardner Frank $160 — and for reasons appearing to us lot No 4 la to pay 
lot No. 3 $21 50, to lot No. 2, $12 50, and to lot No. 1, 50 cents. It 
also appears to us after the above allotment was made, that Joe, in lot 
No. 2, was appraised to $160 instead of $60, wherefore it is directed, 
that lot No. 2, shall pay to the other lots the sum of $15 cash. 
" Given from under our hands this 16th day of July, 1810. 

EoBERT West. 

JoaN HrGHES. 
Wm. K. Peerin." 

The following entries are taken from a .fragment of the Abington 
church records, which are deposited at the Gloucester Court-house. 
They appear to give most of the important niarriages and deaths in the 
family, for more than half a century, and they also furnish interesting 
evidence of the solicitude of Col. Whiting, to have all his slaves bap- 
tized. 

1*732, Major Peter Whiting, was buried February 23. 

1735, Mary, the daughter of Francis Whiting, and his wife was born 

20th April, and baptized 6th of May. 
1738, Ann, the daughter of Mr. Beverley Whiting, and his wife was 

born December 22, and baptized January 12. 
1742, Sally, Merit, Tony, Patt, to Whiting, baptized June 27. 

1742, Catey to Mr. Whiting, born January. 

1743, November, Betty to Mr. Brodr. Whiting. 

1743, November, Betty, to Mr. Whiting born. 

1744, Rob. to Mr. Beverley Whiting, born February. 
1744, Sept. Chevr, Dfty. to Whiting, were baptized. 

1744, Eliz. daugh. of Thomas and Eliz. Whiting, born Nov. 29. 

1746, Anne, daugh. of Thos. and EHz. Whiting, born August 22. 

1747, Aggy, to Mr. Thomas Whiting, born February 26. 

1747, Francis Whiting was married to Mrs. Frances Perrin, Jan. 24. 

1749, Mrs. Elizabeth Whiting, departed this life April 20. 

1749, Richard, male slave, to Mr. Thomas Whiting, baptized Oct. Ifc. 

1749, Diana, slave to Mr. Thos. Whiting, baptized January 28. 

1750, Esther, slave to Mr. Thomas Whiting, about 8 years old, bap. 

tized April 8. 

1751, Phill. slave to Thos. Whiting, baptized January 26. 

1753, Grace, slave to Mr. Thomas Whiting, baptized September 9. 



BIRTH, PARENTAGE, AND EDUCATION. 19 

1754, Henry, slave to Capt. Thomas Whiting, 2 months old, oap- 
tized September 15. 

1754, Nelley, slave to Mr. Beverley Whiting, baptized Oct. 18. 

1755, Mr. Beverley Whiting, departed this life. 

(leaf torn,) Thos. Whiting naptized Sept 7 — (uncertain). 

1756, -Joe, slave to Capt. Thomas Whiting, born May 26, and bap. 

tized August 1, 
1756, Frank, slave to Mrs. Whiting, in town, baptized August 15. 

1756, Beverley, son of John and Mary Whiting, baptized Oct. 18. 

1757, Frank, slave to Capt. Thos. Whiting, born April -1, baptized 

May 8. 

1757, Jerry, slave to dapt. Thos. Whiting, baptized Sept. 25. 

1758, Amey, " " " " " February 8. 
Francis, " " " " April 16. 

1758, Johnny, slave to Mrs. * Whiting, Gloucestertown, baptized 

May 28. 
1758, Else, slave to Capt. Thos. Whiting, baptized August 27. 
1758, Beverley, son of Thomas and Eliz. Whiting, born March 10. 

1758, Hannah, Frankey, slaves to Capt. Thos. Whiting, baptized 

April 1. 

1759, Beverley, soli of Capt. Thos. Whiting, died Oct. 28. 

1759, WilUam, son of Capt. Thomas Whiting, died October and waa 
buried 24. 

1759, A negro child belonging to Mrs. Whiting, in Gloucester, died 

December 3. 
1776, Mingo, slave to Mr. John Whiting, died December 8. 

1776, Rosse, slave to Col. Thos. Whiting, baptized December 29. 

Buster, slave to John Whiting, died December 26. 

1777, Cattie, slave to Col. Thomas Whiting, baptized January 25. 
1777, Bristol, slave to John Whiting, died January. 

1760, Amos, slave to Capt. Thomas Whiting, 8 months old, baptized 

June 1. 

1760, Phill, slave to Mrs. Eliza Whiting, in town, 10 months old, bap- 
tized June 1. 

1760, Robert, slave to Capt. Thomas Whiting, baptized Sept. 7. 

1760, Frederic, at Mrs. Whiting's in Glen Town, died the last of Oct. 

and was buried 2d of Nov. 

1761, Ben and Ned, slaves to Mrs. Whiting, in Gloucestertown, bap- 

tized March 22. 
1761, WiUiam, slave to Thos. Whiting, baptized April 19. 
1761, John, slave to Capt. Thos. Whiting, baptized May 24. 
1761, Frank, slave to Capt. Thos. Whiting, baptized Nov. 1. 



20 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

Anne Beverley, Mr. Fremont's mother, was but six 
months old when her father died. When her step- 
mother died, she went to reside with her sister Catherine, 
the wife of a Mr. Lowrej, one of the oldest families in 
Virginia, and the proprietor of the whole of Back Eiver. 
This change of home was one of the results of the 
angry litigation which had been going on between the 
children of Thomas Whiting and Mr. Gary, in conse- 
quence of their ineffectual efforts to get from him their 
respective sliares of their father's estate, and which had 
made Mr. Gary's house an unpleasant home for all 
who were interested in a distribution of the property. 

Anne being the youngest, was most defenceless in the 
hands of Mr. Gary, and instead of being an heiress she 
found herself at an early age, almost dispossessed of 
a large proportion of the ample heritage which had 
been left her. When she had reached the age seven- 
teen, her sister. Mrs. Lowry,* desiring to provide for 
her against what in those days and in that circle was 
deemed the greatest of all calamities, poverty, arranged 
a marriage for her with Major Pryor, also of Glouces- 
ter county, who was very rich and very gouty, and 
sixty-two years of age ; just forty-five years her senior. 

Aside from the fatal disparity of years. Major Pryor, 
lacked refinement and sensibility, and was in every 
respect repulsive to the young creature, who was sacri- 
ficed to him. Anne resisted the importunities of her 



* Mrs. Lowrey is still living, and although eighty-five years of age, is 
in the enjoyment of good health and unimpaired faculties. Her fii-st 
husband was a Lieutenant Stevenson of the Continental army, and a 
relative of Andrew Stevenson minister to England in 1836. 



^ BIKTH, PABENTAGE, AND EDFOATION. 21 

Bister as long as she could, but finally, overcome, by 
a sense of her homeless and dependent condition, which 
were constantly pressed upon her consideration, the 
despairing orphan yielded to her venerable suitor, and 
became Mrs. Major Pry or. Marriage only increased 
her regret for the sacrifice to which she had submitted. 
She became melancholy ; shunned the gay society and 
habits of life to which her husband was addicted, and 
thus dragged out twelve long years of wedded misery. 
By this time, as they were childless, both had become 
convinced that the happiness of neither would be pro- 
moted by continuing to live longer together, and they 
separated. As both had influential friends, the legisla- 
ture of the State, which happened to be in session, 
promptly sanctioned their separation, by passing an act 
of divorce. Not long after both married again, Mrs* 
Pryor to Mr. Fremont, and Major Pryor, in the 76th 
year of his age, to his housekeeper. This connexion of 
course gave great dissatisfaction to the Whitings, who 
were one of the most aristocratic families in Yirginia, 
and could not understand how any person who earned 
his bread, especially by teaching, could be a gentleman. 
Put Mrs. Pryor having taken their advice once, as to 
her first marriage, the folly of which she had exj)iated 
by many long years of gilded wretchedness, determined 
in this instance to act for herself, and to give her heart 
with her hand, to one whom she esteemed worthy of 
both. She had some means, and he had talents, and 
both had courage, and they did not feel called upon at 
the expense of their own happiness to spare that family 
pride, which had not spared the gentle orphan twelve 
years before, when she was helpless and dependent. 



22 LIFE AND SEKVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

After their marriage, in the gratification of an interest 
which Mr. Fremont in common with most cultivated 
Europeans felt in the American Indians, and which the 
remnants of liis wife's fortune enabled him to indulge, 
they travelled for several years in the Southern States, 
where large tracts of country were still occupied by the 
aboriginal tribes. 

The means of communication in that country then 
were very rude, and they travelled as was the custom 
of the day, when means permitted, with their own 
carriage, horses, and servants, stopping where conve- 
nience of towns and dwellings required, and not unfre- 
quently passing the night in Indian villages or by a 
camp-fire. It was during one of these excursions that 
they chanced to pass the night at the inn in Nashville 
where occurred the personal encounter between Gen. 
Jackson and Col. Benton — well remembered in that 
country — the balk from whose pistols passed through, 
the rooms in which they happened to be sitting. And 
it was during a temporary halt at Savannah, in Georgia, 
in the progress of the same expedition, on the 21st of 
January, 1813, that Mrs. Fremont gave birth to their 
eldest child and son, John Charles Fremont, the subject 
of this memoir, who, with his father's name, seems to 
have inlierited also his nomadic instincts. 

The second child, a daughter, was born in Tennessee, 
and the youngest, a son, in Virginia ; shortly after which, 
Mr. Fremont's preparations to return to France were 
defeated by his death, which occurred in the year 1818. 
At this time, an elder brother, Francis was in JSTorfolk, 
with his family. He had emigrated early from St. Do- 
mingo. The loss of his eldest son, a boy of sixteen, who 
was killed by the bursting of a gun at a fourth of July 



V BIRTH, PAKENTAGE, AND EDUCATION. 



23 



celebration in Norfolk, saddened the place to him, and 
he returned with his family to France. He had been 
anxions to take with hira his brother's fam-ily, and made 
it a point with his widow to accompany him. Her de- 
cided refusal to leave her own country, occasioned an 
alieuation between them also, and she was' left to her- 
self with the usual defenceless lot and narrow circum- 
stances which are not the mos-t uncommon heritage of 
widows and orphans. 

Of the brother's family, which returned to France, 
we have no knowledge, except of the recent death 
of a daughter named Cornelia, in a convent in 
South America. The widow, with her young family 
now removed permanently to Charleston, South Caro- 
lina. 

At an early age the eldest boy, with whose future for- 
tunes we are more particularly concerned, entered the 
law office of John W. Mitchell, Esq., one of the promi- 
nent citizens of Charleston. Here he gave such evi- 
dence of intelligence and industry as greatly to interest 
Mr. Mitchell, who found pleasure in directing the capa- 
city he seemed to possess, and devoted many of his 
leisure hours to young Fremont's instruction. The lad's 
vigorous application required more time than Mr. 
Mitchell had at his disposal, and, in prosecution of the 
plan he had formed for him, he placed him under the 
instruction of Dr. John Roberton, a Scotch gentleman, 
who had been educated at Edinburgh, and who had 
established himself as a teacher, principally of ancient 
languages, at Charleston. 

A brief but interesting memorial of this part of young 
Fremont's life from Dr. Roberton himself, who, though 
bending under the weight of some seventy winters, still 



24 LTFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FRKMONT. 

continues in the faithful exercise of his profession at 
Pliihideli)hia, is preserved in the preface to an excellent 
interlinear translation of Xenophon's Anabasis which 
was published by hiin some six years ago. In the 
course of it he refers especially to the intellectual and 
personal habits of Fremont, while under his charge, and 
cornraends them to his pupils, to whom the book is dedi- 
cated, as pre-eminently worthy of imitation. 

" For your further encouragement," he says, " I will 
here relate a very remarkable instance of patient dili- 
gence and indomitable perseverance : 

" In the year 182T, after I had returned to Charleston 
from Scotland, and my classes were going on, a very 
respectable lawyer came to my school, I think some 
time in the month of October, with a youth apparently 
about sixteen, or perhaps not so much (14), of middle 
size, graceful in manners, rather slender, but well 
formed, and upon the whole what I should call hand- 
some ; of a keen, piercing eye, and a noble forehead, 
seemingly the very seat of genius. The gentleman stated 
that he found him given to study, that he had been 
about three weeks learning the Latin rudiments, and 
(hoping, I suppose, to turn the youth's attention from the 
law to the ministry) had resolved to place him under 
my care for the purpose of learning Greek, Latin, and 
Mathematics, sufficient to enter Charleston College. I 
very gladly received him, for I immediately perceived 
he was no common youth, as intelligence beamed in his 
dark eye, and shone brightly on his countenance, indi- 
cating great ability, and an assurance of his futm-e pro- 
gress. I at once put him in the highest class, just 
beginning to read Caesar's Commentaries, and although 
at first inferior, his prodigious memory and enthusiastic 




CO, MMIOS, . HN.AMrM^M, ACU.Mr.NUD BY U,s «-,KK, ,MUS. JKSSIK KKK,M.,NT. NKW, 
TlIK PUKSKXr SITU UK l.Kli.M IMK, IX KANSAS. 



\ BIKTH, PARENTAGE, AND EDOCATION. 25 

application soon enabled him to surpass the best. He 
began Greek at the sapie time and read with some who 
had been long at it, in which he also soon excelled. In 
short, in the space of one year he had with the class, 
and at odd hours he had with myself, read four books of 
Caesar, Cornelius Kepos, Sallust, six books of Yirgil, 
nearly all Plorace, and two books of Livy ; and. in Greek, 
all Grseca Minora, about the half of the first volume of 
Graeca Majora, and four books of Homer's Iliad. And 
whatever he read, he retained. It seemed to me, in 
fact, as if he learned by mere intuition. I was myself 
utterly astonished, and at the same time delighted with 
his progress. I have hinted that he was designed for 
the church, but when I contemplated his bold, fearless 
disposition, his powerful inventive genius, his admiration 
of warlike exploits, and his love of heroic and adventurous 
deeds, I did not think it likely he would be a minister of 
the Gospel. He had not, however, the least appearance 
of any vice whatever. On the contrary, he was always 
the very pattern of virtue and modesty. I could not 
help loving him, so much did he captivate me by his 
gentlemanly conduct and extraordinary progress. It 
was easy to see tliat he would one day raise himself 
to eminence. Whilst under my instruction, I discovered 
his earl}^ genius for poetic composition in the following 
manner. When the Greek class read the account that 
Herodotus gives of the battle of Marathon, the bravery 
of Miltiades and his ten thousand Greeks raised his 
patriotic feelings to enthusiasm, and drew from him 
expressions which I thought were embodied, in a few 
days afterward, in some well-written verses in a Charles- 
ton paper, on that far-famed, unequal but successful con- 
flict against tyranny and oppression; and suspecting my 
3 



26 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN O. FREMONT. 

tiiieuted scholar to be the author, I went to his desk, and 
asked him if he did not write tbem ; and hesitating at 
iirst, rather bhishingly, he confessed he did, I then 
said, ' I knew you could do such things, and I suppose 
you have some such pieces by you, which I should like 
to see. Do bring them to me.' He consented, and id a 
day or two brought me a number, which I read with 
pleasure and admiration at the strong marks of genius 
stamped on all, but here and there requiring, as I 
thought, a very slight amendment. 

" I had hired a mathematician to teach both him and 
myself (for I could not then teach that science), and in 
this he also made such wonderful progress, that at the 
end of one year he entered the Junior Class in Charles- 
ton College triumphantly, while others who had been 
studying for years and more, were obliged to take the 
Sof)homore Class. About the end of the year 1828 I left 
Charleston, but I heard that he highly distinguished 
lilinself, and graduated in 1830. After that he taught 
mathematics for some time. His career afterwards has 
been one of heroic adventure, of hair-breadth escapes by 
flood and field, and of scientific explorations, which 
have made him world-wide renowned. In a letter I 
received from him very lately, he expresses his grati- 
tude to me in the following words : ' I am very far 
from either forgetting you or neglecting you, or in any 
way losing the old regard I had for you. There is no 
time to which I go hacJc with o lore pleasure than that 
spent with you, for there was no time so thoroughly loell 
spent, and of anything I may have learned, I remerriber 
nothing so well, and so distinctly, as what I acquired 
with you.'' Here I cannot help saying that the merit 
was almost all his own. It is true that I encouraged 
and cheered him on, but if the soil into which I put the 



BIETH, PARENTAGE, AND EDUCATION. 27 

seeds of learning had not been of the richest quality, 
they would never have sprung up to a hundred fold in 
the full ear. Such, my young friends, is but an imper- 
fect sketch of my once beloved and favorite pupil, now 
a senator, and who may yet rise to be at the head of 
this great and growing Republic. My prayer is that he 
may ever be opposed to war, injustice and oppression 
of every kind, a blessing to his country and an example 
of every noble virtue to the whole world." 

At the age of sixteen young Fremont was " con- 
firmed " in the Protestant Episcopal Church, in which 
faith his mother, who was a Protestant, had educated 
her children, and in which faith all his own children have 
been baptized.* About this time he became acquainted 

* Colonel Fremont's religion h-aving become the subject of some discus 
Bion, it may not be improper to give in this connection the following cer- 
tificate of the baptism of his children, from the rector of the Church of 
the Epiphany at Washington City, showing tha't they wece all baptized 
in the Episcopal Church. 

" Washinqton Crr.T, Jxily 12, 1868. 
" The following children of J. Charles and Jessie Benton Fremont have 
been baptized in the church of the parish of the Epiphany, Washington, 
D.C. — their baptisms being recorded in the register of said pariah : 
" 1848, Aug. 15, Elizabeth McDowell Benton Fremont. 
" 1848, Aug. 15, Benton Fremont. 
" 1858, Dec. 28, John Charles Fremont. 
" 1855, Aug. 1, Francis Preston Fremont. 

" As iwn-e were baptized in a house, hid all were brought to the church, 
the order of the Protestant Episcopal Church for * the Ministration of 
Public Bu'ptLsm of Infants,' was tha-t whidi was used. 

" J. W. French, 
"Rector of the parish of the Epiphany, Washington, D. C, 

Among the sponsors of these- children were Col. Benton, Kit Carson, 
Capt. Lee. US.N'., Francis P. Blair and Col. Fremont himself. 



28 LIFE AND SEKVICE3 OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

witli a young West Indian girl, whose raven hair and 
soft black eyes interfered sadly with his studies. He 
was absent for days together from the college, and 
repeatedly arraigned and reprimanded by the faculty, 
but to no purpose. Taking counsel of his heart, and not 
of his head, he set college rules at defiance. The faculty 
bore with him for a long time on account of his high 
standing in his studies, good scholarship, and abundant 
promise; but at length, irritated with his insubordina- 
tion and bad example, for which no explanation was 
given, they expelled him from the college. 

His application, though interrupted, had been .vigor- 
ous while it lasted, and his acquirements, especially in 
mathematics, had been remai-kable. After this abrupt 
and perhaps unfortunate termination of his collegiate 
career, he engaged in teaching mathematics, principally 
to senior classes in different schools, and also took charge 
of the " Apprentices' Library," an evening school under 
ft board of directors, of which Dr. Joseph Johnston was 
president. But his career as an instructor was destined 
soon to be interrupted by a succession of domestic calam- 
ities which exerted an important influence upon his 
character. It was about this time that the death of his 
sister, then in her seventeenth year, occurred. His bro- 
ther, who possessed an ardent and enthusiastic tempera- 
ment and unusual ability, when but fifteen years of age, 
in consequence of an association with amateur players, 
had his taste turned to the stage, on which he imagined 
that fame and fortune are of easy acquisition. With 
these ideas, full of the generous impulses which belonged 
to his age and character, he suddenly, and without con- 
sulting his family, left his home to work out his fortune 
for himself. 

His brief life gave little space for the employment of. 



BIRTH, PARENTAGE, AND EDUCATION. 29 

energies which might liavc realized his jontliful expec- 
tations. A few years after this an injury received at a 
]-iot in Buffalo permanently affected his liealth, and he 
returned to his mother and died in Charleston, when lie 
was little more than twenty years old. 

The death of his sister and the departure of liis bro- 
ther made a harsh inroad on the domestic quiet of his 
family, and gave a sudden check to the careless and un- 
reflecting habits which had hitherto marked the conduct 
of the youthful Fremont. 

He now awoke to the sober interests of life, as circum- 
stances brought him into ruder contact with them, and 
he devoted himself to earnest labor, which, since then, 
has never been intermitted. 



80 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 



CHAPTEE II. 

CHOOSES HIS PROFESSION — MARRIES JESSIE BENTON". 

In 1833, the sloop of war Natchez entered the port 
of Charleston to enforce Gen.^ Jackson's proclamation 
against the JSTuUifiers. Being thence ordered on a 
cruise to South America, Fremont, then just twenty 
years of age, obtained through the Secretary of the 
Kavy, Mr. Poinsett, the post of teacher of mathematics, 
and made in her, in that capacity, a cruise of some two 
and a half years' duration. Sliortly after his return to 
Charleston, he received from the college, whicli had 
once expelled him — Dr. Adams being still its President 
— the degrees of Bachelor and Master of Ai'ts. 

A law had in the meantime been enacted creating 
Professorships of Mathematics in the Navy, and Fre- 
mont was one of a few among many candidates who 
successfully passed a rigorous examination before a 
board convened for this purpose at Baltimore, and was 
appointed to the frigate Independence. But he had in 
the meantime decided to labor in a profession which 
offered a lai-ger field to energy and promised greater 
rewards, and for which his studies had particularly 
qualified him. He made his first essay as surveyor and 



CHOOSES HIS PROFESSION MAHRIES JESSIE BENTON. 31 

railroad engineer in an examination for an improve- 
ment of the railway line between Charleston and 
Augusta.* 

About this time a corps of engineers was organized 
under the direction of Capt. G. W. Williams, of the 
United States Topographical Engineers (killed in the 
battle of Monterey), and Gen. W. G. McNeill, for the 
purpose of making a preliminary survey of a route for 
a railway line from Charleston to Cincinnati, and Fre- 
mont was appointed one of the assistant engineers, 
charged with the exploration of the mountain passes 
between South Carolina and Tennessee, where he 
remained until the work was suspended in the fall of 
1837. 

The parties engaged in this work occasionally stopped 
at the farm houses scattered through the mountains, but 
more frequently lived in camp, being provided with 
tents and all the necessary equipage for a camp -life, of 
which this was Fremont's first experience. It was a 
country well calculated to make such first impressions 
durable and atti-active — rough and wild, and abounding 
in those natural beauties which make the summer in 
that region particularly delightful. 

He remained here until the suspension of the work. 
Capt. Williams being then ordered to make a military 
reconnoissance of the mountainous country compre- 
hending portions of the States of Georgia, North Caro- 
lina and Tennessee, occupied at this time by tlie Clierokee 
Indians, Fremont accompanied him as one of his assist- 
ants. This was a winter survey — made hurriedly, in 

* In after years, when the result of a court-martial had deprived Fre- 
mont of his commission in the army, he was offered the presidency of 
this railroad, with a salary of $5,000. 



32 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT, 

anticipation of hostilities already threatening with the 
Indians — and the surveyors at times were occupied, 
with a guide only, in making rapid reconnoissances on 
horseback, and at other times in slower operations, 
with a party of eight or ten men, with pack mules to 
carry their tents and provisions ; it being a forest coun- 
try, sparsely occupied by Indian farms. At night they 
felled trees, and made large fires of hickory logs," 
aronnd whicli the panther's cry was occasionally heard, 
and owls hooted from the hemlocks. This was the first 
experience of a winter's campaign to one destined to go 
to the vero-e of hnman endurance in similar scenes. 
From this work, in the spring, he went directly to the 
Upper Mississippi, whence he set out on an exploring 
expedition over the northwestern prairies, under the 
command of J. IST. Nicollet. 

M- Nicollet was a French gentleman of distinction, a 
member of the Academy of Sciences, eminently distin- 
guished for varied and extraordinary ability and for his 
scientific attainments, " whose early death," says Hum- 
boldt in his Asj)ects of Nature^ " deprived science, of 
one of her brightest ornaments." As a geographer, our 
noi'thwestern country had for him a peculiar interest. 
It had been the field in which the earlier French disco- 
verers and Catholic missionaries had labored, and it had 
been one of his most cherished wishes to visit the scenes 
of their labors and to draw together the scattered mate- 
rials of a history which he -thought redounded to the 
honor of his countrymen. With these views, and in 
the interest of geography, he had recently made an 
extended journe}^ around the sources of the Mississippi, 
the map and materials of vs^hich had been adopted by our 
government, and he had been commissioned to make an 



CHOOSES HIS PROFESSION MAERIE8 JESSIE BENTON. 33 

examination of our almost unexplored northwestern 
region in continuation of his own labors. 

Mr. Poinsett, then Secretary of War, remembered 
Fremont as a suitable person to co-operate in his work, 
and procured for him the appointment of principal assis- 
tant, in which capacity he accompanied M. Nicollet, 
during the yeai 5 '38, and '39, in two separate explora- 
tions of the greater part of the region lying between the 
Missouri and the Upper Rivers, and extending north to 
the British line. During his absence, in '38, Fremont 
was appointed by Mr. Yan Buren a second-lieutenant in 
the corps of topographical engineers which had been 
re-organized by General Jackson, M^ho provided that 
half of the corps should be taken from the civil service. 
Fremont was one of the first who profited by this pro- 
vision. After the return of these expeditions, more than 
a year was occupied in the reduction of their materials, 
with a map and report in illustration of them ; and dur- 
ing this time Fremont resided with M. Nicollet and Mr. 
Hassler, then the head of the coast survey. In the 
familiar society and conversations of these two remarka- 
ble men he enjoyed the rare opportunity of a daily asso- 
ciation with science in her most attractive guise. They 
were not men who had worked laboriously up, branch 
by branch, to obtain an incomplete knowledge of sci- 
ence ; their genius had spread out its fields distinctly 
before them, and they had surveyed them from an emi- 
nence. Tliey had invented new forms for the easier 
expression of scientific results, and new instruments to 
extend and apply them. 

The natural result of such an intercourse was to give 
him confidence in his resources, and to inspire him with 
those enlarged views which have distinguished his sub- 

2* 



34 LITE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. I'REMONT. 

sequent career, and secured for liim flattering attentions 
from the most eminent philosophers of his age. 

Among the friendly and social relations formed at this 
time, which, perhaps, more than any other, influenced 
his future life, by identifying him most directly with the 
interests of the "West, was his intimacy with tlie family 
of Mr. Benton, then senator from IV^issouri in whose 
second daughter, Jessie, then only fifteen, he became 
deeply interested. His suit was favorably entertained 
by the daughter, but not so by her parents. 

To the marriage of tlieir daughter with an officer, 
both Mr. and Mrs. Benton were decidedly opposed. 
Mr. Benton, because, in his judgment, the army 
was not a profession, only a salaiy during lifetime, 
throwing the widow upon the War Department, to which 
Mrs. Benton added the farther objection of her daugh- 
ter's extreme youth. Both had the highest personal 
regard for Mr. Fremont, whom they had known well 
during the two winters previous, and but for these rea- 
sons, the marriage would have been, what, it afterwards 
became, one entirely agreeable to them in every 
respect. 

During the summer of 1841, and while the poor young 
officer was struggling as best he might with the obsta- 
cles which his suit had encountered, he received a mys- 
terious but inexorable order to make an examination of 
the river Des Moines, upon the banks of which the Sacs 
and Fox Indians still had their homes, Iowa being at 
that time a frontier country. He sat ont to the discharge 
of this duty with such spirits as he could command, 
finished it, and returned to Washington, when shortly 
after his return, and on the 19th October, 1841, the 
impatient lovers were married. 



FIRST EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 35 



CHAPTER III. 

FIRST EXPLORING EXPEDITION EXPLORES THE SOUTH PASS 

PLANTS THE AMERICAN FLAG ON THE HIGHEST PEAK OF 
THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS SPEECH OF SENATOR LINN. 

The knowledge already acquired by Fremont of our 
northwestern territories was sufficient to reveal to him the 
utter ignorance upon the whole subject which prevailed 
generally among his countrymen. He discovered that 
pretty much all that was known about them was made 
up of travellers' tales over their camp-fires about fab- 
ulous rivers and mountains and lakes, which never had 
any existence except in the imagination of these fron- 
tier raconteurs and their too credulous listeners. As 
late as 1846, one of the earlier editions of a general 
map of the United States for the year in the Congres- 
sional library at Washington, regarded and quoted as 
an authority on the Oi*egon question that year, even by 
the President himself, with entire confidence, repre- 
sented the great Salt Lake as discharging itself by 
three great rivers into the Pacific ocean — from its 
southern extremities into the Gulf of California — from 
its western side through the Sierra Nevada range into 
the bay of San Francisco, and from its western extremity 
into the embouchure *f the Columbia river.* In his 

•Humboldt, in his Aspects of Nature, p. 50, says: "The phys cal and 



36 LIFE AKD SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

various explorations Fremont had already not only 
disabused liis mind of many suck absurdities as this, 
upon which public curiosity had been fed, but he had 
also become strongly impressed both with the feasi- 
bility and the necessity of an overland communication of 
some kind between the Atlantic and Pacilic States. This 
became a leading idea with him in his subsequent 
explorations, to which we are about to direct our read- 
ers' attention, and remained at all times and in all situa- 
tions one of his favorite dreams. 

It M^as in 1842 that his first extended plan of geo- 
graphical survey was projected, comprehending in its 
design the whole of our western territories lying 
between the Missouri and the Pacific ocean. His first 
step was the exploration of the northwestern frontier of 
the State of Missouri, terminating eastwardly with the 
"Wind River peak of the Rocky Mountains, upon the 
highest of which, 13,000 feet above the ocean, he 
succeeded in planting the American flag, and to which 
he has given his name. Mr. Benton informs us* that 
when Lieut. Fremont applied for this employment, CoL 
Abert, the chief of the topographical corps, gave him 
an order to go to the frontier, beyond the Mississippi. 
" That order," adds the historian, " did not come up to 
his views. After receiving it he carried it back, and 
got it altered, and the Rocky Mountains inserted as an 
object of his exploration, and the South Pass in those 

geogiiostical views entertained respecting tlic western part of North 
America, have been rectified, in many respects, by the adventurous 
journey of Major Long, the excellent writings of his companion, Edward 
James, and more especially by the comprehensive observations of Captain 
Fremont. ' 

*Bci. toil's Thirty Years' View, vol. ii., p. 4*78. 



FIRST EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 37 

mountains named as a particular point to be examined, 
and its position fixed by him. It was through this pass 
that the Oregon emigration crossed the inountains, and 
the exploration of Lieut. Fremont had the double 
effect of fixing an important point in the line of the 
emigrants' travel, and giving them encouragement from 
the apparent interest which the government took in. 
their enterprise. At the same time, the government, 
that is, the executive administration, knew nothing 
about it. The design was conceived by the young 
lieutenant : the order for its execution was obtained, 
upon solicitation, from his immediate chief — importing, 
of course, as to be done by his order, but an order which 
had its conception elsewhere." 

Mr. Fremont left Washington, with his instructions, 
on the second day of May, 1842 ; completed his 
arrangements at Choteau's trading-house, a few miles 
beyond the western boundary of the State of Missouri, 
and set out upon his expedition on the 10th of June. 

He had collected in the neighborhood of St. Louis 
twenty-one men, principally Creole and Canadian 
voyageurSy who had become familiar with prairie life in 
the service of the fur companies in the Indian country. 
Mr. Charles Preuss, a native of Germany, was his 
assistant in the topographical part of the survey. L. 
Maxwell, of Kaskaskia, had been engaged as hunter, 
and Christopher Carson (more familiarly known, for his 
exploits in tlie mountains, as Kit Carson) was his guide. 
The persons engaged in St., Louis were: Clement Lam- 
bert, J. B. L'Esperance, J. B. Lefevre, Benjamin 
Potra, Louis Gouin, J. B. Dumes, Basil Lajeunesse, 
Fran9ois Tessier, Benjamin Cadotte, Joseph Clement, 
Daniel Simonds, Leonard Benoit, Michel Morly, Bap 



o8 LIFE AND SERVICKS OF JOHN C. FKKMONT. 

liste Bernier, Honore Ayot, Francois Latulippe, Fran- 
9oi6 Badeau, Louis Menard, Joseph Jluelle, Moise 
Chardoimais, Auguste Janisse, Raphael Proue. 

In addition to these, Ilenry Brant, son of Colonel J. 
B. Brant, of St. Louis, a young man of nineteen years 
of age, and Kandolph, a lively boy of twelve, son of the 
Hon. Thomas 11. Benton, accompanied him. All were 
well armed and mounted, with the exception of eight 
men, who conducted as many carts, in which were 
packed the stores, with the baggage and instruments, 
and wliich were each drawn by two mules. A few loose 
horses, and four oxen, which had been added to the 
stock of provisions, completed the train. The day on 
wliich they set out happened to be Friday — a circum- 
stance which his men did not fail to remember and 
recall during the hardships "^nd vexations of the ensuing 
journey. 

For a detailed account of the romantic incidents of 
this expedition, of its hazards, privations, and achieve- 
ments ; of its geographical and scientific results, wliich 
have received repeated acknowledgment from the most 
distinguished sources, the reader is referred to the oflScial 
report, of which several editions have been published 
in addition to the one printed by Congress for the use of 
the government. We shall content ourselves with a few 
extracts which will best serve to illustrate some of 
the more striking points in Col. Fremont's character. His 
journey lay along the bed of Platte River, through 
what has since become famgus as the South Pass, which 
he first explored ; thence north, to the Wind River peak 
of the Rocky Mountains, wliich he first ascended, and 
to which he has given his name ; and thence home by 
way of the Loup fork of the Platte River. When the 



FIRST EXPLOEING EXPEDITION. 39 

party arrived on their way out, at Fort Laramie on the 
12th of Jul}', the}^ found a bad state of feeling had grown 
up between the Cheyennes and Sioux Indians on the one 
hand, and the whites oh the other, in consequence of an 
unfortunate engagement which had recently occurred, 
in which the Indians had lost eight or ten warriors. 
Some eight hundred Indian lodges were ascertained to 
be in motion against the whites, and great alarm had 
been inspired by the intelligence received of their move- 
ments. What followed, we have thought of sufficient in- 
terest to quote at length in Col. Fremont's own words : 

" Thus it would appear that the country was swarming with 
scattered war-parties ; and when I heard, during the day, the 
various contradictory and exaggerated rumors which were inces- 
santly repeated to them, T was not surprised that so much alarm 
prevailed among my men. Carson, one of the best and most 
experienced mountaineers, fully supported the opinion given by 
Bridger of the dangerous state of the country, and openly 
expressed his conviction that we could not escape without some 
sharp encounters with the Indians. In addition to this, he made 
his will ; and among the circumstances which were constantly 
occurring to increase their alarm, this was the most unfortunate ; 
and I found that a number of my party had become so much 
intimidated that they had requested to be discharged at this 
place. I dined to-day at Fort Platte, which has been mentioned 
as the junction of Laramie River with the Nebraska. Here I 
heard a confirmation of the statements given above. The party 
of warriors, which had started a few days since on the trail of 
the emigrants, was expected back in fourteen days, to join the 
village with which their families and the old men had remained. 
The arrival of the latter was hourly expected, and some Indians 
had just come in who had left them on the Laramie fork, about 
twenty miles above. Mr. Bissonette, one of the traders belong- 



40 LIFE iJND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FKEMONT. 

ing to Fort Platte, urged the propriety of taking with me an 
interpreter and two or three old men of the village ; in which 
case, he thought there would be little or no hazard in encoun- 
tering any of the war-parties. The principal danger was in 
being attacked before they should know who we were. 

" They had a confused idea of the numbers and power of our 
people, and dreaded to bring upon themselves the military force 
of the United States. This gentleman, who spoke the language 
fluently, ofiered his services to accompany me so far as the Red 
Buttes. He was desirous to join the large party on its return, 
for purposes of trade, and it would suit his views, as well as my 
own, to go with us to the Buttes ; beyond which point it would 
be impossible to prevail on the Sioux to venture, on account of 
their fear of the Crows. From Fort Laramie to the Red Buttes, 
by the ordinary road, is one hundred and thirty -five miles ; and, 
though only on the threshold of danger, it seemed better to 
secure the services of an interpreter for the partial distance, than 
to have none at all. 

"So far as frequent interruption from the Indians would allow, 
we occupied ourselves in making some astronomical calculations, 
and bringing up the general map to this stage of our journey ; 
but the tent was generally occupied by a succession of our cere- 
monious visitors. Some came for presents, and others for infor- 
mation of our object in coming to the country ; now and then, 
one would dart up to the tent on horseback, jerk off his trap- 
pings, and stand silently at the door, holding his horse by the 
halter, signifying his desire to trade. Occasionally a savage 
would stalk in with an invitation to a feast of honor, a dog feast» 
and deliberately sit down and wait quietly until I was ready to 
accompany him. I went to one ; the women and children were 
sitting outside the lodge, and we took our seats on butialo robes 
spread around. The dog was in a large pot over the fire, in the 
middle of the lodge, and immediately on our arrival was dished 
up in large wooden bowls, one of which was handed to each. 
The flesh appeared very glutinous, with something of the flavor 



FIKST EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 41 

and appearance of mutton. Feeling something move behind, nie, 
I looked round, and found that I had taken my seat among a 
litter of fat young puppies. Had I been nice in such matters, 
the pi'ejudicei- of civilization might have interfered with my tran- 
quillity ; but fortunately, I am not of delicate nerves, and con- 
tinued to empty my platter. 

" The weather was cloudy at evening, with a modernie south 
wind, and the thermometer, at six o'clock, 85 degrees. I was 
disappointed in my hope of obtaining an observation of an 
occultation, which took place about midnight. The moon 
brought with her heavy banks of clouds, through which she 
scarcely made her appearance during the night. 

"The morning of the 18th was cloudy and calm, the ther- 
mometer, at six o'clock, 64 degrees. About nine o'clock, with a 
moderate wind from the west, a storm of rain came on, a -com- 
panied by sharp thunder and lightning, which lasted about an 
hour. During the day the expected village arrived, consisting 
principally old men, women, and children. They had a considerable 
number of horses and large troops of dogs. Their lodges were 
pitched near the fort, and our camp was constantly crowded 
with Indians of all sizes, from morning until night ; at which 
time some of the soldiers generally came to drive them all off to 
the village. My tent was the only place which they respected. 
Here only came the chiefs and men of distinction, and generally 
one of them remained to drive away the women and chil- 
dren. The numerous sti'ange instruments, applied to still stranger 
uses, excited awe and admiration among them, and those which 
I used in talking with the sun and stars they looked upon with 
special reverence, as mysterious things of ' gi'eat medicine.' Of 
the three barometers which I had brought with me thus far suc- 
cessfully, 1 found that two were out of order, and spent the 
greater part of the 19th in repairing them — an operation of no 
small difiiculty in the midst of the incessant interruptions to 
which I was subjected. We had the misfortune to break here 
a large thermometer graduated to show fifths of a degree, which 



42 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN 0. FRKMONT. 

I used to ascertain the temperature of boiling water, and with 
wliicli I liad promised myself some interesting experiments in 
the mountains. We had but one remaining, on which the 
graduation extended sufficiently high ; and this was too small 
for exact observations. 

" During our stay here, the men had been engaged in making 
numerous repairs, arranging pack-saddles, and otherwise preparing 
for the chances of a rough road and mountain travel. All things 
of this nature being ready, I gathered them around ine in the 
evening, and told them that 'I had determined to proceed the 
next day.' They were all well ai-med. I had engaged the 
service of Mr. Bissonette as interpreter, and had taken every 
means possible in the circumstances to ensure our safety. In 
the rumors we had heard, I believed that there was much exag- 
geration, and then they were men accustomed to this kind of 
hfe and to the country ; and that these were the dangers of every 
day occurrence, and to be expected in the ordinary course of 
their service. They had heard of the unsettled condition of the 
country before leaving St. Louis, and therefore could not make 
it a reason for breaking their engagements. Still, I was unwil- 
ling to take with me, on a service of some certain danger, men 
on whom I could not rely ; and as I had understood that there 
were some among them who were disposed to cowardice, and 
anxious to return, they had but to come forward at once, and 
state their desire, and they would be discharged with the amount 
due to them for the time they had served. To their honor be it 
said, there was but one among them who had the face to come 
forward and avail himself of the permission. I asked him some 
few questions, in order to expose him to the ridicule of the men, 
and let him go. The day after our departure, he engaged him- 
self to one of the forts, and set off with a party to the Upper 
Missouri. 

"I did not think that the situation of the country justified me 
m taking our young companions, Messrs. Brant and Benton, 
along with us. In case of misfortune, it would have been 



FIRST EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 43 

thought, at the least, an act of great imprudence; and, tlierefore, 
though reluctantly, I determined to leave them. Ramlolph had 
been the life of the camp, and the '■petit gargon'' was much 
regretted by the men, to whom his buoyant spirits liad afforded 
great amusement. They all, however, agreed in the propriety 
of leaving him at the fort, because, as they said, he might cost 
the lives of some of the men in a fight with the Indians. 

'''■July 21. — A portion of our baggage, with our field notes 
and observatiohs, and several instruments, were left at the fort. 
One of the gentlemen, Mr. Galpin, took charge of a barometer, 
which he engaged to observe during my absence ; and J entrusted 
to Randolph, by way of occupation, the regular winding up of 
two of my chronometers, which were among the instruments left. 
Our observations showed that the chronometer which I retained 
for the continuation of our voyage, had preserved its rate in a most 
satisfactory manner. As deduced from it, the longitude of Fort 
Laramie is 7 hours 01 minutes 21 seconds, and from lunar dis- 
tance, Y hours 01 rainutes 29 seconds — giving for the adopted 
longitude 104 degrees 41 minutes 48 seconds. Comparing the 
barometical observation made during our stay here, with those 
of Dr. G. Engleman, at St. Louis, we find for the elevation of 
the fort above the Gulf of Mexico, 4,470 feet. The winter 
climate here is remarkably mild for the latitude; but rainy 
weather is frequent, and the place is celebrated for winds, of 
which the prevailing one is west. An east wind in summer, 
and a south wind in winter, are said to be always accompanied 
with rain. 

" We were ready to depart ; the tents were struck, the mules 
geared up, and our horses saddled, and we walked up to the fort 
to take the stirrup-cup with our friends in an excellent home- 
brewed preparation. While thus pleasantly engaged, seated in 
one of the little cool chambers, at the door of which a man had 
been stationed to prevent all intrusion from the Indians, a num- 
ber of chiefs, several of them powerful, fine' looking men, forced 
their way into the room in spite of all opposition. Handing mo 



44 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN 0. FRE^fONT. 

the following letter ( in French), they took their seats in 
silence : 

[translation.] 

" Fort Platte, July 1, 1842. 
»' ' Mr. Fremont : The chiefs, having assembled in council, have just 
told me to warn you not to set out before the party of young men which 
is now out shall have returned. Furthermore, they tell me, that they are 
very sure they will fire upon you as soon as they meet you. They are 
expected back in seven or eight days. Excuse me for making these ob- 
servations, but it seems my duty to warn you of danger. Moreover, the 
chiefs who prohibit your setting out before the return of the warrion 
are the bearers of this note. 

" 'I am your obedient servant, 

" * Joseph Bissonette. 
" ' By L. B. Chartrain. 
" ' Names of some of the Chiefs. — The Otter Hat, the Breaker of Ar- 
rows, the Black Night, the Bull's Tail.' 

" After reading this, I mentioned its purport to my compan- 
ions ; and, seeing that all were fully possessed of its contents, one 
of the Indians rose up, and, having first shaken hands with me, 
spoke as follows : 

" ' You have come among us at a bad time. Some of our peo- 
ple have been killed, and our young men, who are gone to the 
mountains, are eager to avenge the blood of their relations, 
which has been shed by the whites. Our young men are bad, 
and if they meet you, they will believe that you arc carrying 
goods and ammunition to their enemies, and will fire upon you. 
You have told us that this will make war. We know that our 
great father has many soldiers and big guns, and we are anxious 
to have our lives. We love the whites, and are desirous of peace. 
Thinking of all these things, we hpve determined to keep you 
here until our warriors return. We are glad to see you among 
us. Our father is rich, and we expected that you would have 
brought presents to us — horses, guns, and blankets. But we are 
glad to see you. We look upon your coming as the light which 
goes before the sun ; for you will tell our great father that you 



FIKST EXPLOEING EXPEDITION. 45 

have seeu us, and that we are naked and poor, and have no- 
th' jg to eat ; and he will send us all these things.' 

" He was followed by the others, to the same effect. 

" The observations of the savage appeai'ed reasonable ; but I 
was aware that they had in view only the present object of de- 
taining me, and were unwilling I should go further into the 
country. In reply, I aske'd them, through the interpretation of 
Mr. Boudeau, to select two or three of their number to accom- 
pany us until we should meet their people — they should spread 
their robes in my tent and eat at my table, and on our return I 
would give them presents in reward of their services. They de- 
clined, saying that there were no young men left in the village? 
and that they were too old to travel so many days on horseback, 
and preferred now to smoke their pipes in the lodge, and let the 
warriors go on the war path. Besides, they had no power over 
the young men, and were afraid to interfere with them. In my 
turn I addressed them : 

" ' You say that you love the whites : why have you killed so 
many already this spring? You say that you love the whites, 
and are full of many, expressions of friendship to us ; but you 
are not willing to imdergo the fatigue of a few days' ride to save 
our lives. We do not believe what you have said, and will not 
listen to you. Whatever a chief among us tells his soldiers to 
do, is done. We are the soldiers of the great chief, your father. 
He has told us to come here and see this country, and all the 
Indians, his children. Why should we not go ? Before we 
came, we heard that you had killed his people, and ceased to be 
his children ; but we came among you peaceably, holding out 
our hands. Now we find that the stories we heard are not lies, 
and that you are no longer his friends and children. We have 
thrown away our bodies, and will not turn back. When you told 
us that your young men would kill us, you did not know that 
our hearts were strong, and you did not see the rifles which my 
young men carry in their hands. We are few, and you are 
many, and may kill us all ; but there will be much crying in 



46 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

your villages, for many of your young men will stay behind, and 
forget to return with your warriors from the mountains. Do you 
think that our gi-eat chief will let his soldiers die, and forget to 
cover their graves ? Before the snows melt again, his warriors 
will sweep away your \'inages as the fire does the prairie in the 
autumn. See ! I have pulled down my white houses, and my 
people are ready : when the sun is ten paces higher, we shall be 
on the march. If you have anything to tell us, you will say it 
soon.' 

" I broke up the conference, as I could do nothing with these 
people ; and, being resolved to proceed, nothing was to be gained 
by delay. Accompanied by our hospitable friends, we returned 
to the camp. We had mounted wir horses, and our parting salu- 
tations had been exchanged, when one of the chiefs (the Bull's 
Tail) arrived to tell me that they had determined to send a young 
man with us ; and if I would point out the place of our evening 
camp, he should join us there. ' The young man is poor,' said he ; 
' he has no horse, and expects you to give him one.' I described 
to him the place where I intended to encamp, and, shaking 
hands, in a few minutes we were among the hills, and this last 
habitation of whites shut out from our view." 

They were not disturbed farther by the Indians in the 
prosecution of their journey, but they encountered a 
more formidable enemy toward the close of the week, 
in the scarcity of provisions ; a great drought and the 
grasshoppers having swept the country so, that not a 
blade of grass was to be seen, nor a buffalo to be found 
through the whole region. Some Sioux Indians whom 
they met, stated that their people were nearly starved 
to death ; had abandoned their villages, and their reced 
ing tracks might be marked by the carcases of hoi-ses 
strewed along the road, of which they had eaten, or 
which had died of starvation. Bisonnette advised 



FIKST EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 47 

Fremont to return. The latter called np liis men, 
informed them of what he had heard, and with that 
inflexibility of purpose and faith in hiniscli', which, 
always seem in hours of greatest peril to have sus- 
tained him, avowed his fixed determination to proceed 
iu the execution of the entei-prise for which he had been 
commissioned, at the same time giving them to under- 
stand that, in view of the dangei's to which they were 
exposed, it was optional with them to go with him 
or to return. 

" Among them," says Fremont, " were some five or 
six whom I knew would remain, "We had still ten days' 
provisions ; and should no game be fonnd, when this 
stock was expended, we had our horses and mules, 
which we could eat when other means of subsistence 
failed. But not a man flinched from the undertaking. 
'"We'll eat the mules,' said Basil Lajeunesse; and there- 
upon we shook hands with our interpreter and his Indi- 
ans, and parted. "WitJi them I sent back one of my men, 
Dames, whom the effects of an old wound in the leg 
rendered incapable of continuing the journey on foot, 
and his horse seemed on the point of giving out. Hav- 
ing resolved to disencumber ourselves immediately ot 
every Tiling n()t absolutely necessary to our future opera- 
tions, I turned directly in toward the river, and 
encamped on the left bank, a little above the place 
where our council had been held, and where a thick 
grove of willows offered a suitable spot for the object I 
had in view." Mr. Fremont then proceeds as follows : 

"The carts having been discharged, the covers and wheels 
■were taken off, and, with the frames, carried into some low places 
amona: the willows, and concealed in the dense foliao-e in such a 



48 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN 0. FREMONT. 

manner that the glitter of the iron work might not attract the 
observation of some straggling Indian. In the sand, which had 
been blown up into waves, among the willows, a large hole was 
then dug, ten feet square, and six deep. In the meantime, all 
our eftects had been spread out upon the ground, and whatever 
was designed to be carried along with us separated and laid aside, 
and the remaining part carried to the hole and carefully covej-ed 
up. As much as possible, all traces of our proceedings were 
obliterated, and it wanted but a rain to render our cache safe 
beyond discovery. All the men were now set at work to arrange 
the pack-saddles and make up the packs. 

" The day was very warm and calm, and the sky entirely clear, 
except where, as usual along the summits of the mountainous 
ridge opposite, the clouds had congregated in masses. Our 
lodge had been planted, and on account of the heat the 
ground pins had been taken out, and the lov/er part slightly 
raised. Near to it was standing the barometer, wliich swung 
in a tripod frame ; and within the lodge, where a small 
fire had been built, Mr. Preuss was occupied in observing the 
temperature of boiling water. At this instant, and without any 
warning until it was within fifty yards, a violent gust of wind 
dashed down the lodge, burying under it Mr. Preuss and about 
a dozen men, who had attempted to keep it from being carried 
away. I succeeded in saving the barometer, which the lodge 
was carrying off with itself, but the thermometer was broken, 
AVe had no others of a high graduation, none of those which 
remained going higher than 130° Fahrenheit. Our astronomi- 
cal observations gave to this place, which we named Cache camp, 
a longitude of 106° 38' 26", latitude 42° 50' 53"." 

The care with which Mr. Fremont records the pre- 
servation of this barometer lends interest to his 
subsequent account of its destruction and the ingenuity 
with which he repaired its loss. In crossing the !N^ew 
Fork of Green river about a week after the events last 




KKKMD.NT PLANTS TlIK A.MKKIUAN H.AU ON THK IllUllKST I'KAK UK KIK KOCKV MOUNTAINS. 



FIRST EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 49 

described, the current was very swift, and he accident- 
ally broke it. It was the only barometer he had been 
able to pi-eserve np to that point in his journey, and in 
recording the calamity in his journal, he adds : 

" A great part of the interest of the journey for me was in 
the exploration of these mountains, of which so much had been 
said that was doubtful and contradictory ; and now their snowy 
peaks rose majestically before me, and the only means of giving 
them authentically to science, "the object of my anxious solici- 
tude by night and day, was destroyed. We had brought this 
barometer in safety a thousand miles, and broke it almost 
among the snow of the mountains. The loss was felt by the 
Avhole camp — all had seen my anxiety, and aided me in preserv- 
ing it. The height of these mountains, considered by the 
hunters and traders the highest in the whole range, had 
been a theme of constant discussion among them ; and all 
had looked forward with pleasure to the moment when the 
instrument, which they believed to be true as the sun, should 
stand upon the summits, and decide their disputes. Their grief 
was only inferior to my own." 

The skill and patience exhibited by him in repairing 
his loss illustrates one of the most characteristic and 
remarkable traits of Mr. Fremont's character — his fer- 
tility of resource and his habitual self-reliance. The 
incident cannot bo better described than in his own 
words. 

" As soon as the camp was formed," he says, "I set about 
endeavoring to repair my barometer. As I have already said, 
this Avas a standard cistern barometer, of Troughton's construc- 
tion. The glass cistern had been broken about midway ; but as 
the instrument had been kept in a proper position, no air had 

3 



50 LIFE AND SERVICES QF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

found its way into the tube, the end of which had always 
remained covered. I had with me a nuiuber of vials of toler- 
ably thick glass, some of which were of the same diameter an 
the cistern, and I spent the day in slowly working on these, 
endeavoring to cut them of the requisite length ; but, as mj 
instrument Avas a very rough file, I invariably broke them. A 
groove was cut in one of the trees, where the barometer was 
placed during the night, to be out of the way of any possible 
danger, and in the morning I commenced again. Among the 
powder horns in the camp, I found one which was very trans- 
parent, so that its contents could be almost as plainly seen a? 
through glass. This I boiled and stretched on a piece of wood 
to the requisite diameter, and scraped it very thin, in order tc 
increase to the utmost its transparency. I then secured il 
firmly in its place on the instrument, with strong glue made 
from a buffalo, and filled it with mercury, properly heated. A 
piece of skin, which had covered one of the vials, furnished a good 
pocket, which was well secured with strong thread and glue, and 
then the brass cover was screwed to its place. The instrument 
was left some time to dry ; and when I reversed it, a few hours 
after, I had the satisfaction to find it in perfect order; its indica- 
tions being about the same as on the other side of the lake befoa; 
it bad been broken. Our success in this little incident ditiused 
pleasure throughout the camp ; and we immediately set about 
our preparations for ascending the mountains." 

Tlie great achievement of this expedition, however, and 
one of the gi-eatest ever accomplished by any traveller 
in any age, all the circnmstances considered, was tho 
ascent of the Wind River peak of the Rocky Mountains, 
the highest ]3eak of that vast chain, and one which was; 
probably never trod before by any mortal foot. The 
simplicity of Mr. Fremont's account of this day's jour- 
nev befits the subliraitv of the events he records. His 



FERST EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 61 

companions in the ascent were Mr. Preiiss, Basil Lajeu- 
nesse, Clement Lambert, Janisse and Descoteaux. We 
can add nothing to the interest or impressiveness of the 
narrative. 

"When Ave had secured strength for the day (15 Aug.) by a 
hearty breakfast, Ave covered what remained, which was enough 
for one meal, with rocks, in order that it might be safe from 
any marauding bird; and saddling our mules, turned our faces 
once more towards the peaks. This time we determined to pro- 
ceed quietly and cautiously, deliberately resolved to accomplish our 
object if it were within the compass of human means. We were 
of opinion tliat a long defile which lay to the left of yesterday's 
route would lead us to the foot of the main peak. Our mules 
bad been refreshed by the fine grass in the little ravine at the 
Island camp, and we intended to ride up the defile as far as pos- 
sible, in order to husband our strength for the main ascent. 
Though this was a tine passage, still it was a defile of the most 
rugged mountains known, and we had many a rough and steep 
slippery place to cross before reaching the end. In this place the 
sun rarely shone ; snow lay along the border of the small stream 
which flowed through it, and occasional icy passages made the 
footing of the mules very insecure, and the rocks and ground 
were moist with the trickling waters in this spring of mighty 
rivers. We soon had the satisfaction to find ourselves riding 
along the huge wall which forms the central summits of the chain. 
There at last it rose by our sides, a nearly perpendicular ■wall of 
granite, terminating 2,000 to 3,000 feet above our heads 
in a serrated line of broken, jagged cones. We rode- on until we 
came almost immediately below the main peak, which I denomi- 
nated the Snow Peak, as it exhibited more snow to the eye 
than any of the neighboring summits. Here were three small 
lakes of a green color, each of perhaps a thousand yards in dia- 
meter, and apparently very deep. These lay in a kind of chasm; 
and, acooidini]^ to tlie barometer, we had attained but a few hun- 



62 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

dred feet above the Island lake. The barometer here stood a 
20"450, attached thermometer 70°. 

" We managed to get our mules up to a little bench about a 
hundred feet above the lakes, and turned them loose to graze. 
During our rough ride to this place, they had exhibited a won- 
derful surefootedness. Parts of the defile were filled with angu- 
lar, sharp fragments of rock, three or four and eight or ten feet 
cubic ; and among these they had worked their way leaping 
from one narrow point to another, rarely making a false step, 
and giving us no occasion to dismount. Having divested our- 
selves of every unnecessary encumbrance, we commenced the 
ascent. This time, like experienced travellers, we did not press 
ourselves, but climbed leisurely, sitting down so soon as we found 
breath beginning to fail. At intervals we reached places Avhere 
a number of springs gushed from the rocks, and about 1,800 feet 
above the lakes came to the snow line. From this point our 
progress was uninterrupted climbing. Ilitherto I had \Yorn a 
pair of thick moccasins, with soles of parfieche^ but here I put on 
a light thin pair, which I had brought for the purpose, as now 
the use of our toes became necessary to a further advance. I 
availed myself of a sort of comb of the mountain, which stood 
against the wall like a buttress, and which the wind and the solar 
radiation, joined to the steepness of the smooth rock, had kept 
almost entirely free from snow. Up this I made my way rapidly. 
Our cautious method of advancing in the outset had spared my 
strength ; and with the exception of a slight disposition to head- 
ache, I felt no remains of yesterday's illness. In a few minutes 
we reached a point where the buttress was overhanging, and there 
was no other way of surmounting the difficulty than by passing 
around one side of it, which was the face of a vertical precipice 
of several hundred feet. 

"Putting hands and feet in the crevices between the blocks, I 
succeeded in getting over it, and, when I reached the top, found 
my companions in a small valley below. Descending to them, 
we continued climbing, and in a short time reached the crest. 



FIEST EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 53 

I sprang upon the summit, and anotliei" step would have precipi- 
tated me into an immense snow-field five hundred feet beloW' 
To the edge of this field was a sheer icy precipice ; and then, 
with a gradual fall, the field sloped off" for about a mile, until it 
struck the foot of another lower ridn^e. I stood on a narrow crest 
about three feet in width, with an inclination of about 20° N. 
51® E. As soon as I had gratified the first feeling of curiosity, 
I descended, and each man ascended in his turn ; for I would 
only allow one at a time to mount the unstable and precarious 
slab, which it seemed a breath would hurl into the abyss below. 
We mounted the barometer in the snow of the summit, and fixing 
a ramrod in a crevice, unfurled the national flag to wave in the 
breeze where never flag waved before. During our morning's 
ascent, we had met no sign of animal life, except the small spar- 
row-like bird already mentioned. A stillness the most profound 
and a terrible solitude forced themselves constantly on the mind 
as the great features of the place. Here, on the summit, where 
the stillness was absolute, unbroken by any sound, and the solitude 
complete, we thought ourselves beyond the region of animated 
life ; but while we were sitting on the rock, a solitary bee {hromus^ 
the humble bee) came winging his flight from the eastern valley, 
lit on the knee of one of the men. 

" It was a strange place, the icy rock and the highest peak of 
the Rocky Mountains, for a lover of warm sunshine and flowers ; 
and we pleased ourselves with the idea that he was the first of 
his species to cross the mountain barrier — a solitary pioneer to 
foretell the advance of civilization. I believe that a moment's 
thought would have made us let him continue his way unharmed ; 
but we carried out the law of this country, where all animated 
nature seems at war ; and seizing him immediately, put him in 
at least a fit place — in the leaves of a large book, among the 
flowers we had collected on our way. The barometer stood at 
18-293, the attached thermometer at 44°; giving for the eleva- 
tion of this summit 13,570 feet above the Gulf of Mexico, which 
Tnay be called the highest flight of the bee. It is certainly the 



64 LIFE AND SEKVICES OF JOUN C. FREMONT. 

higliest known tliglit of that insect.* From the description 
given by Mackenzie of the mountains where he crossed them, 
with that of a French oflicer still farther to the north, and Col. 

*Thc encounter of Col. Fremont with this solitary pioneer of humau 
civilization upon the summit of the highest peak of the Rocky Mountains, 
is a curious commentary upon the familiar lines whixih concludes Bryant's 
poem of the Prairies, and which will already have occurred to many of 
our readers upon the perusal of the afiecting incident so gracefully 
recorded by Col. Fremont. 

* * * * " The bee, 

A colonist more adventurous than man. 

With whom he came across the Eastern deep — 

Fills the savannas with his murmurings. 

And hides his sweets, as in the Golden Age, 

Within the hollow oak. I listen long 

To his domestic hum, and thinlc I hear 

The sound of that advancing multitude 

Which soon shall till these deserts. I'rom the ground 

Come" up the laugh of children, the soft voice 

Of maidens, and the sweet and solemn hymn 

Of Saljbath worshippers. The low of herds 

Blends with the rustling of the lieavy grain 

Over the dark-brown furrows. All at once, 

A fresher wind sweeps by, and breaks my dream, 

And I am in the wilderness alone. 

"Fremont, in the expedition which he made between the years 1842 
and 1844, at the command of the United States government, discovered 
and measured barometrically the highest peak of the whole chain of the 
Rocky Mountains to the north-northwest of Spanish, James', Long's, 
and Laramie's Peaks. This snow-covered summit, which belongs to the 
group of the Wind River Mountains, bears the name of Fremont's Peak, 
on the great chart published under the direction of Colonel Abert, chief 
of the topographical department at Washington. This point is situated 
in the parallel of 43° 10' north latitude, and 110° 7' west longitude, and, 
therefore, nearly 5° 80' north of Spanish Peak, which, according to 
direct measurement, is 13,568 feet, must, therefore, -exceed by 2,072 feet 
that given by Long to James' Peak, which would appear, from its 
position, to be identical with Pike's Peak, as given in the map above 
referred to. The Wind River Mountains constitute the dividing ridge 
{divortia aquaruni) between the two seas. 

" To the surprise of the adventurous travellers, the summit of Fremont's 



FIEST EXPLOEING EXPEDITION. 55 

Long's measurements to the south, joined to tlie opinion of tlie 
oldest traders of the country, it is presumed that this is the 
highest peak of the Rocky Mountains. The day was sunny and 

Peak was found to be visited by bees. It is probable that these insects, 
like the butterflies which I found at far higher elevations in the chain 
of the Andes, and also within the limits of perpetual snows, had been 
involuntarily drawn thither by ascending currents of air. I have even 
seen large-winged Icpidoptera, which had been carried far out to sea by 
land winds, drop on the ship's deck, at a considerable distance from the 
land, in the South Sea. 

" Fremont's map and geographical researches embrace the immense 
tract of land extending from the confluence of Kansas River with the 
Missouri, to the cataracts of the Columbia, and the Missions of Santa 
Barbara, and the Pueblo de los Angelos, in New Cahfornia, presenting a 
space amounting to 28 degrees of longitude (about 13G0 miles) between 
the 34th and 45tli parallels of north latitude. Four hundred points have 
been hypsometrically determined by barometrical measurements, and for 
the most part, astronomically ; so that it has been rendered possible to 
delineate the profile above the sea's level, of a tract of land measuring 
3,600 miles, with all its inflections, extending from the north of Kansas 
to Fort Vancouver, and to the coasts of the South Sea (almost 720 miles 
more than the distance from Madrid to Tobolsk), As I believe I was 
the first who attempted to represent, in geognostic profile, the configura- 
tion of Mexico and the Cordilleras of South America (for the half-per- 
spective projections of the Siberian traveller, the Abbe Chappe*, were 
based on mere, and, for the most part, on very inaccurate estimates of 
the falls of rivers) ; it has afforded me special satisfaction to there find 
;he graphical method of representing the earth's configuration in a ver- 
tical direction, that is, the elevation of solid over fluid parts, achieved on 
so vast a scale. In the mean latitudes of 37ft to 43°, the Rocky Moun- 
tains present, besides the great snow-crowned summits, whose height 
may be compared to that of the Peak of Tencriffe, elevated plateaux of 
an extent scarcely to be met with in any other part of the world, and 
whose breadth from east to west is almost twice that of the Mexican 
highlands. From the range of the mountains which begin a little west- 
ward to Fort Laramie, to the further side of the Wahsatch Mountains, the 
elevation of the soil is uninterruptedly maintained from five to upwards of 
seven thousand feet above the sea level ; nay, this elevated portion 

♦Chappe d'Auteroche : Voyage en Siherie,fait en 1761. 4 vol3.,4to., Paris, 17CS. 

\ 



5G LITE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

bright, but a slight sliinirig mist hung over the lower phiins, which 
interfered with our view of the surrounding country. On one 
side we overlooked innumerable lakes and streams, the spring of 
the Colorado of the Gulf of California ; and on the other was 
the Wind River valley, where were the heads of the Yellow- 
stone branch of the Missouri ; far to the north, we just could 
discover the snowy heads of the Trois Tetons, Avhere Avere the 
source of the Missouri and Columbia rivers ; and at the southern 
extremity of the ridge, the peaks were plainly visible, among 
which were some of the springs of the Nebraska or Platte River. 
Around us, the whole scene had one main striking feature, 
which was that of terrible convulsion. Parallel to its length, 
the rid'ge was split into chasms and fissures ; between whick 
rose the thin lofty walls, terminated Avith slender minarets and 
columns. According to the barometer, the little crest of the 
wall on which we stood Avas three thousand five himdred and 
seventy feet above that place, and two thousand seven hundred and 
eighty above the little lakes at the bottom, immediately at our 
feet. Our camp at the Two Hills (an astronomical station) bore 
south 3° east, Avhich, Avith a bearing afterward obtained from a 
fixed position, enabled us to locate the peak. The bearing of 
the Trois Tetons Avas north 50° Avest, and the direction of the cen- 
tral ridge of the Wind River mountains south 39° east. 

occupies the A\'hole space between the true Rocky Mountains and the 
Californian snowy coast range from 34° to 45° north latitude. This 
district, which is a kind df broad longitudinal valley, like that of the 
Lake Titicaca, has been named the Great Basin, by Joseph Walker and 
Captain Fremont, travellers well acquainted with those Avestern regions. 
It is a terra incognita of at least 8,000 geographical (or 128,000 Enghsh) 
square miles, and almost uuiuhabitod, and full of salt lakes, the largest 
of Avhich is 3,940 Parisian (or 4,200 English) feet above the level of the 
sea, and is connected with the narrow Lake Utah,* into which ' Rock River ' 
(Timpan Oc/o, in the Utah language) pours its copious stream.! — Hum- 
boldfs Aspects of 2faiure. P/). 32-3-4. ' 



Rock R 
am.l— J 



♦Fremont : Report of the Exploring Evpediiion, pp. 154 s.m\ 273—276, 



FIEST EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 57 

"The summit rock was gneiss, succeeded by sienitic gneiss. 
Sienite and feldspar succeeded in our descent to the snow line^ 
where we found a feldspathic granite. I had remarked that the 
noise produced by the explosion of our pistols had the usual 
degree of loudness, but was not in the least prolonged, expiring 
almost instantaneously. Having now made what observations 
our means afforded, we proceeded to descend. We had 
accomplished an object of laudable ambition, and beyond the 
strict order of our instructions. We had climbed the loftiest 
peak of the Rocky Mountains, and looked down upon the snow 
a thousand feet below, and, standing where never human foot 
had stood before, felt the exultation of first explorers. It was 
about two o'clock when we left the summit; and when we 
reached the bottom, the sun had already sunk behind the wall 
and the day was drawing to a close. It would have been 
pleasant to have lingered here and on the summit longer ; but 
we hurried away as rapidly as the ground would permit, for it 
was an object to regain our party as soon as possible, not 
knowing what accident the next hour might bring forth. 

" We reached our deposit of provisions at nightfall. Here 
was not the inn which awaits the tired traveller on his return 
from Mont Blanc, or the orange groves of South America, with 
their refreshing juices and soft fragrant air ; but we found our 
little cache of dried meat and coffee undisturbed. Though the 
moon was bright, the road was full of precipices, and the 
fatigue of the day had been great. We therefore abandoned 
the idea of rejoining our friends, and lay down on the rock, and 
in spite of the cold, slept soundly." 

On the following day, the 17tli of August, came the 
welcome order to turn their faces homeward, and on the 
22d they reached the encampment of their party at 
Rock Independence. Here a little incident occurred 
which shows that amid the manifold trials and dangers 
through which Fremont had passed, he had not forgotten 

3* 



58 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN 0. FREMONT. 

the protecting arm which had always been near to sup- 
port and defend hini. "We quote again from his journal : 

" 23d. — Yesterday evening we reached our encampment at 
Koclc Independence, where I took some astronomical observations. 
Here, not unmindful of the custom of early travellers and ex- 
plorers in our country, I engraved on that rock of the Far West 
a symbol of the Christian faith. Among the thickly inscribed 
names, I made on the hard granite the impression of a large 
cross, which I covered with a black preparation of India rubber, 
well calculated to resist the influence of wind and rain. It 
stands amidst the names of many who have long since found 
their way to the grave, and for whom the huge rock is a giant 
tombstone. 

" One George Weymouth was sent out to Maine by the Earl 
of Southampton, Lord Arundel, and others ; and in the narra- 
tive of his discoveries, he says : ' The next day we ascended in 
our pinnace that part of the river which lies more to the west- 
ward, carrying with us a cross — a thing never omitted by any 
Christian traveller — which we erected at the ultimate end of our 
route.' This was in the year 1605 : and in 1842 I obeyed the 
feeling of early travellers and left the impression of the cross 
deeply engraved on a vast rock, one thousand miles beyond the 
Mississippi, to which the discoverers have given the national 
name of Rock Independence." 

With his brief but thrilling account of an attempt 
to visit Goat Island, in the Platte Kiver, by which he 
was neaidy losing many of the most important results of 
his expedition, as well as his life, we will close our 
extracts from his journal : 

" August 24th. — We started before sunrise, intending to break- 
fast at Goat Island. Mr. Preuss accompanied me, and with us 
were five of our best men. Here appeared no scarcity of water, 
and we took on board, with various instruments and baggage, 






ll'f -v" 




' ^^V.VK. 



fKEilUNT'S UAKliEKOUb PASSAGE TUKUUUU A CANON IN TUE PLATTE KIVEK — PAGK 58. 



FIRST EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 59 

provisions for ten or twelve days. We paddled down the river 
rapidly, for our little craft was light as a duck on the water ; and 
the sun had been some time risen, when we heard before us a 
hollow roar, which we supposed to be that of a fell, of which we 
had heard a vague rumor, but whose exact locality no one had 
been able to describe to us. We were approaching a ridge, 
through which the river passes by a place called ' canon' (pro- 
nounced canyon), a Spanish Avord, signifying a piece of artillery, 
the barrel of a gun, or any kind of tube ; and which, in this 
country, has been adopted to describe the passage of a river 
between perpendicular rocks of great height, which frequently 
approach each other so closely overhead as to form a kind of 
tunnel over the stream, which foams along below, half choked 
up by fallen fragments. 

" We passed three cataracts in succession, where perhaps one 
hundred feet of smooth water intervened ; and finally with a 
shout of pleasure at our success, issued from our tunnel into open 
day beyond. We were so delighted with the performance of our 
boat, and so confident in her powers, that we would not have 
hesitated to leap a fall of ten feet with her. We put to shore 
for breakfast at some willows on the right bank, immediately 
below the mouth of the canon ; for it was now 8 o'clock, and we 
had been working since daylight, and were all wet, fatigued and 
hungry. 

" We re-embarked at 9 o'clock, and in about twenty minutes 
reached the next canon. Landing on a rocky shore at its com- 
mencement, we ascended the ridge to reconnoitre. Portage was 
out of the question. So far as we could see, the jagged rocks 
pointed out the course of the canon, on a wending line of seven 
or eight miles. It was simply a narrow, dark chasm in the rock; 
and here the perpendicular faces were much higher than in the 
previous pass, being at this end two to three hundred, and further 
down, as we afterwards ascertained, five hundred feet in vertical 
height. Our previous success had made us bo^ 1, and we deter- 
mined ?gain to run the canon. Everythir was secured as 



60 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN .C. FREMONT. 

firmly as possible ; and having divested ourselves of the greater 
part of our clothing, we pushed into the stream. To save our 
chronometer from accident, Mr. Preuss took it and attempted to 
proceed along the shore on the masses of rock, which in places 
were piled up on either side ; but, after he had walked about 
five minutes, everything like shore disappeared, and the vertical 
v.all came squarely down into the water. He therefore waited 
until we came up. An ugly pass lay before us. We had made 
fast to the stern of the boat a strong rope about fifty feet long ; 
and three of the men clambered along among the rocks, and 
with this rope let her down slowly through the pass. In several 
places high rocks lay scattered about in the channel ; and in the 
narrows it required all our strength and skill to avoid staving 
the boat on the sharp points. In one of these, the boat proved 
a little too broad, and stuck fast for an instant, Avhile the water 
flew over us ; fortunately it was but for an instant, as our united 
strength forced her immediately through. The water swept 
overboard only a sextant and pair of saddle-bags. I caught the 
sextant as it passed by me, but the saddle-bags became the prey 
of the whirlpools. "We reached the place where Mr. Preuss was 
standing, took him on board, and, Avith the aid of the boat, put 
the men with the rope on the succeeding pile of rocks. We 
found this passage much worse than the previous one, and our 
position was rather a bad one. To go back was impossible ; 
before us the cataract was a sheet of foam ; and shut up in the 
chasm by the rocks, which, in some places, seemed almost to 
meet overhead, the roar of Avater was deafening. We pushed 
off again ; but, after making a little distance, the force of the cur- 
rent became too great for the men on shore, and two of them let 
go the rope. Lajeunesse, the third man, hung on, and was 
jerked headforemost into the river from a rock about twelve feet 
high ; snd down the boat shot like an arrow, Basil following us 
in the rapid current, and exerting all his strength to keep in mid- 
channel — his head only seen occasionally like a black spot in 
the white foam. How far he went, I do not exactly know ; but 



FIRST EXPLOEING EXPEDITION. 61 

we succeeded in turning the boat into an eddy below. "Cre 
Dicu,'' said Basil Lajeunesse, as he arrived immediately after us, 
Je crois bien que fai nage un demi mile^ He had owed his 
life to his skill as a swimmer, and I determined to take him and 
the two others on board, and trust to skill and fortune to reach 
the otlier end in safety. We placed ourselves on our knees, 
with the short paddles in our hands, the most skillful boatman 
being at the bow ; and again we commenced our rapid descent. 
" We cleared rock after rock, and shot past fall after fall, our 
little boat seeming to play with the cataract. We became flushed 
with success, and. familiar with the danger ; and, yielding to the 
excitement of the occasion, broke forth together into a Canadian 
boat song. Singing, or rather shouting, we dashed along; and 
were, I believe, in the midst of the chorus, when the boat struck 
a concealed rock immediately at the foot of a fall, which Avhirled 
her over in an instant. Three of my men could not swim, and my 
first feeling was to assist them, and save some of our eftects ; but 
a sharp concussion or two convinced me that I had not yet saved 
myself. A few strokes brought me into an eddy, and I landed 
on" a pile of rocks on the left side. Looking around, I saw that 
Mr. Preuss had gained the shore on the same ' side, about 
twenty yards below ; and a little climbing and swimming soon 
brought him to my side. On the opposite side, against the wall, 
'ay the boat, bottom up ; and Lambert was in the act of saving 
Descoteaux, whom he had grasped by the hair, and who could not 
swim ; ^Lache jpas^ said he, as I afterwards learned, ' laclie pas, cher 
frere^ ' Crains pas^ was the reply, ' Je m^en vais mourir avant 
que de te lacker!' Such Avas the reply of courage and generosity 
in the danger. For a hundred yards below the current was 
covered with floating books and boxes, bales and blankets, and 
scattered articles of clothing ; and so strong and boiling was 
the stream, that even our heav}' instruments, which were all in 
<;ases, kept on the surface, and the sextant, circle and the long 
black box of the telescope, were in view at once. For a moment 
I was somewhat disheartened. All our books, almost every record 



62 LUTE AND SERVICES OF JOUN C. FREMONT. 

of the journey, our journals and registers of astronomical and 
barometrical observations, had been lost in a moment. But it 
was no time to indulge in regrets ; and I immediately set about 
endeavoring to save something from the wreck. Making our- 
selves understood as well as possible by signs (for nothing could 
be heard in the roar of waters), we commenced our operations. 
Of everything on board, the only article that had been saved 
was my double-barreled gun, which Descoteaur had caught, 
and clung to with drowning tenacity. The men continued down 
the river on the left bank. Mr. Preuss and myself descended on 
the side we were, on ; and Lajeunesse, with a paddle in his 
hand, jumped on the boat alone, and continued down the canon. 
She was now light, and cleared every bad place with much less 
difllculty. In a short time he was joined by Lambert, and the 
search was continued for about a mile and a half, which was as 
far as the boat could proceed in the pass. 

"Here the walls were about five hundred feet high, and the 
fragments of rocks from above had choked the river into a hol- 
low^ pass, but one or two feet above the surface. Through this 
and the interstices of the rock, the water found its way. Fa- 
vored beyond our expectations, all of our registers had been 
reco\'ered, with the exception of. one of my journals, which con- 
tained the notes and incidents of travel, and topographical 
descriptions, a number of scattered astronomical observations, 
principally meridian altitudes of the sun, and our barometrical 
register west of Laramie. Fortunately, our other journals con- 
tained duplicates of the most important barometrical observa- 
tions which had been taken in the mountains. These, with a 
few scattered notes, were all that had been preserved of our me- 
teorological observations. In addition to these, we saved the 
circle ; and these, with a few blankets, constituted everything 
that had been rescued from the waters. 

" The day was running rapidly away, and it was necessary to 
reach Goat Island, whither the party had preceded us, before 
night. In this uncertain country, the traveller is so much in the 



FIKST EXPLOEING EXPEDITION. 63 

power of cliance, that we became soraewhat uneasy in regard to 
thera. Should anything have occurred in the brief interval of 
our separation, to prevent our rejoining them, our situation would 
be rather a desperate one. We had not a morsel of provisions 
— our arms and ammunition were gone — and were entirely at 
Llie mercy of any straggling partj' of savages, and not a little in 
danger of starvation. We therefore set out at once in two par- 
ties. Mr. Preuss and myself on the left, and the men on the 
opposite side of the river. Climbing out of the canon, we found 
ourselves in a very broken country, where we were not yet able 
to recognize any locality. In the course of our descent through 
the canon, the rock, which at the upper end was of the decom- 
posing granite, changed into a varied sandstone foi'mation. The 
hills and points of the ridges were covered with fragments of a 
yellow sandstone, of which the strata were sometimes displayed 
in the broken ravines which interrupted our course, and made 
our walk extremely fatiguing. At one point of the canon the 
red argillaceous sandstone rose in a wall of five hundred feet, 
surmounted by a stratum of white sandstone ; and in an opposite 
ravine a column of red sandstone rose, in form like a steeple, 
about one hundred and fifty feet high. The scenery was 
extremely picturesque, and notwithstanding our forlorn condition, 
we were frequently obliged to stop and admire it. Our progress 
was not very rapid. We had emerged from the water half 
naked, and, on arriving at the top of the precipice, I found 
myself with only one moccasin. The fragments of rock made 
walking painful, and I was frequently obliged to stop and pull 
out the thorns of the cactus, here the prevailing plant, and with 
which a few minutes' walk covered the bottom of my feet. From 
this ridge, the river emerged into a smiling prairie, and descend- 
ing to the bank for water, we were joined by Benoist. The rest 
of the pai-ty were out of sight, having taken a more inland route. 
We crossed the river repeatedly — sometimes able to ford it, and 
sometimes swimming — climbed over the ridges of two more 
canons, and towards evening reached the cut, which we here 



64 LIFE AND SEK\aCE3 OF JOHN 0. FREMONT. 

named the Hot Spring gate. On our previous visit in July, we 
had not entered this pass, reserving it for our descent in the 
boat ; and when we entered it this evening, Mr. Preuss was a few 
hundred feet in advance. Heated with the long march, he came 
suddenly upon a fine bold spring gushing from the rock, about 
ten feet above the river. Eager to enjoy the crystal water, he 
threw himself down for a hasty draught, and took a mouthful of 
water almost boiling hot. He said nothing to Benoist^ who laid 
himself down to drink: but the steam from the water arrested his 
eagerness, and he escaped the hot draught. We had no ther 
mometer, to ascertain the temperature, but I could hold my 
hand in the water just long enough to count two seconds. There 
are eight or ten of these springs discharging themselves by 
streams large enough to be called runs. A loud hollow noise 
was heard from the rock, which I suppose to be produced by the 
fall of the water. The strata immediately where the issue is a 
fine white and calcareous sandstone, covered with an incrusta- 
tion of common salt. Leaving this Thermopylje of the West, in 
a short walk we reached the red ridge which has been described 
as lying just above Goat Island. Ascending this, we found some 
fresh tracks and a button, which showed that the other men 
had already arrived. A shout from the man who had first 
reached the top of the ridge, responded to fl-om below, informed 
us that our friends were all on the island ; and we were soon 
among them. We found some pieces of buffalo standing around 
the fire for us, and managed to get some dry clothes among the 
people. A sudden storm of rain drove us into the best shelter 
•we could find, where we slept soundly, after one of the most 
fatiguing days I have ever experienced." 

On the lYtli of October, Colonel Fremont was at St. 
Louis, and on the 29tli in Washington. His report was 
completed and in the hands of the War Department 
before the winter was over. It was called for by the 
Senate, and when reported, Dr. Linn, tJien one of tho 



FIEST EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 65 

senators from the State of Missouri, accompanied a 
motion to print extra copies with some complimentary 
remarks, which we give as reported in the Congressional 
Globe of that date : 

" In support of bis motion," Mr. L. said, " that in the course 
of the last summer a very interesting expedition had been un- 
dertaken to the Rocky Mountains, ordered by Colonel Abert, 
chief of the Topographical Bureau, with the sanction of the 
Secretary of War, and executed by Lieut. Fremont of the 
Topographical Engineers. The object of the expedition was to 
examine and report upon the rivers and country between the 
frontiers of Missouri and the basis of the Rocky Mountains ; and 
especially to examine the character, and ascertain the latitude 
and longitude of the South Pass, the great crossing place to 
these mountains on the way to the Oregon. All the objects of 
the expedition have been accomplished, and in a way to be bene- 
ficial to science and instructive to the general reader, as well as 
useful to the government. 

" Supplied with the best astronomical and barometrical instru- 
ments, well qualified to use them, and accompanied by twenty- 
five vorjageurs, enlisted for the purpose at St. Louis, and trained 
to all the hardships and dangers of the prairies and the moun- 
tains, Mr. Fremont left the mouth of the Kansas, on the frontiers 
of Missouri, on the 10th of June ; and, in the almost incredibly 
short space of four months, returned to the same point, without 
an accident to a man, and with a vast mass of useful observa- 
tions, and many hundred specimens in botany and geology. 

" In executing his instructions, Mr. Fremont proceeded up the 
Kansas River far enough to ascertain its character, and then 
crossed over to the Great Platte, and pursued that river to its 
source in the mountains, where the Sweet Water (a head branch 
of the Platte), issues from the neighborhood of the South Pass. 
He reached this Pass on the 8th of August, and describes it as a 
wide and low depression of the mountains, where the ascent is as 



66 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FKEMONT. 

easy as that of the hill on which tliis Capitol stands, and where 
a plainly-beaten wagon road leads to the Oregon, through the 
valley of Lewis's River, a fork of the Columbia. He went 
through the pass, and saw the head waters of the Colorado, of 
the Gulf of California ; and leaving the valleys to indulge a 
laudable curiosity, and to make some useful observations, and 
attended by four, of his men, he climbed the loftiest peak of the 
Rocky Mountains, until then untrodden by any known human 
being; and, on the 15th of August, looked down u^^on ice and 
snow some thousand feet below, and traced in the distance the 
valleys of the rivers which, taking their rise in the same elevated 
ridge, flow in ojiposite directions to the Pacific Ocean and to the 
Mississippi. From that ultimate point lie returned by the valley 
of the Great Platte, following tlie stream in its whole course, 
and solving all questions in relation to its navigability, and the 
character of the country through which it flows. 

" Over the whole course of this extended route, barometrical 
observations were made by Mr. Fremont, to ascertain elevations 
both of the plains and of the mountains; astronomical observa- 
tions weie taken to ascertain latitudes and longitudes; the face 
of the country w as marked as arable or sterile ; the facility of 
travelling, and the practicability of routes noted ; the grand 
features oT nature described, and some presented in drawings ; 
military positions indicated ; and a lai-ge contribution to geology 
and botany was made in the varieties of plants, flowers, shrubs, 
trees, and grasses, and rocks and earths, which were enumerated. 
Drawings of some grand and striking points, and a map of the 
whole route, illustrate the report, and facilitate the understand- 
"ino- of its details. Eight carts drawn by two mules each accom- 
panied the expedition ; a fact which attests the facility of travel- 
linsr in this vast reo'ion. Herds of buflaloes furnished subsistence 
to the men ; a short, nutritious grass, sustained the horses and 
mules. Two boys (one of twelve years of age, the other of 
eighteen), besides the enlisted men, accompanied the expedition, 
and touk their share of its hardships ; which proves that boya, 



FIKST EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 67 

as well as men, are able to traverse the country to the Rocky 
Mountains. 

" The result of all his observations Mr. Fremont had condensed 
into a brief report — enough to make a document of ninety or 
one hundred pages ; and believing that this document would be 
of general enterest to the whole country, and beneficial to 
science, as well as useful to the government, I move the printing 
of the extra number which has been named. 

" In making this motion, and in bringing this report to the 
notice of the Senate, I take a great pleasure in noticing the 
activity and importance of the Topographical Bureau. Under 
its skillful and vigilant head [Colonel Abert] numerous valuable 
and incessant surveys are made ; and a mass of information 
collected of the highest importance to the country generally, as 
well as to the military branch of the public service. This report 
proves conclusively that the country, for several hundred miles 
from the frontier of Missouri, is exceedingly beautiful and fertile ; 
alternate woodland and prairie, and certain portions well supplied 
with water. It also proves that the valley of the river Platte 
has a very rich soil, affording great facilities for emigrants to the 
west of the Rocky Mountains." 

Tlie Loudon Athencewn, of March, 18M, commences 
a review of tliis report in the following complimentary 
terms, which we quote to show the impression it pro- 
duced in the literary circles of the old world : 

" The government of the United States did well when in 
furtherance of the resolution to survey the road across the Great 
Western Prairie and the Rocky Mountains to the Oregon terri- 
tory, it selected Lieut. Fremont for the execution of the work. 
We liave rarely met with a production so perfect in its kind as 
the unpretending pamphlet containing this report. The narrative, 
clear, full and lively, occupies only Y6 pages, to which are 
appended 130 pages, filled with the results of botanical researches, 



6S LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

of astronomical and meteorologiacal observations. What a con- 
trast does this j^resent to the voluminous emptiness and con- 
ceited rhodomontade so often brought forth by our costly 
expeditions. The country gone over by Lieut. Fremont is cer- 
tainly not the most interesting in the world, nor is it quite new. 
Yet he is evidently not the man to travel 2,000 miles without 
observing much which is worthy of being recorded or to write a 
page which is likely to prove tedious in the reading. His points 
of view are so well chosen, his delineation has so much truth 
and spirit, and his general remarks are so accurate and compre- 
hensive, that under his guidance we find the far \vest prairies 
nearly as fresh and tempting as the most favored Arcadian 
scenes, the hallowed groves of which were never trodden by the 
foot of squatting emigrant or fur trader." 



SECOND EXPLORmG EXPEDITION. 69 



CHAPTER lY. 

SECOND EXPLOIiING EXPEDITION KIT CAESON MRS. FRE- 
MONT WITHHOLDS ORDERS FROM THE WAR DEPARTMENT 

— COLONEL Benton's account of the expedition — dis- 

COVEKS THE INLAND SEA PERILOUS VOYAGE TO ITS 

ISLANDS IN A LINEN BOAT ARRIVES AT FORT VANCOUVER 

AND FULFILLS THE INSTRUCTIONS OF HIS GOVERNMENT. 

The results of Col. Fremont's first expedition were 
60 unexpected, and his success altogether so extraordi- 
nary, that his government took no time to deliberate 
upon the propriety of sending him again into a field of 
duty, where he made the department of the public ser- 
vice, with which he was connected, appear to so much 
advantage. He had scarcely seen his maps and report 
through the press, before he embarked on a second expe- 
dition, from the same point on the frontier, but with 
purposes even more comprehensive than those with 
which he set out in 1842. 

He was instructed to connect the exploration with 
the surveys of the Pacific coast, by Captain Wilkes, who 
had commanded the South Sea Exploring Expedition, 
BO as to give a connected survey of the interior of our 
continent. His party consisted principally of Creole 
and Canadian French and Americans, amounting in all 



70 LIFIC AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FKEMONT. 

to 39 men ; among wliom were several who accompa- 
nied kim in liis lirst expedition. Mr. Thomas Fitzpatrick, 
whom many years of hardship and exposure in the 
western territories, had i^ndered familiar with a portion 
of the country it was designed to explore, had been 
selected as his guide, and Mr. Charles Preuss, who had 
been his assistant in the previous journey, was again 
associated with him in the same cajjacity. 

In compliance with directions froin the War Depart- 
ment,. Mr. Theodore Talbot, of "Washington city, was 
attached to the party, with a view to advancement in 
his profession ; and at St. Louis he was joined by Mr. 
Frederick Dwight, a gentleman of Springfield, Massa- 
chusetts, who availed himself of this escort, to visit the 
Sandwich Islands and China, by way of Fort Yancouver. 

The men engaged for the service were: Alexis Ayot,. 
Francois Badeau, Oliver Beaulieu, Baptiste Bernier, 
John A. Campbell, John G. Campbell, Manuel Chap- 
man, Hansom Clark, Philibert Courteau, Michel Crelis, 
William Creuss, Clinton Deforest, Baptiste Derosier, 
Basil Lajeunesse, Frangois Lajeunesse, Henry Lee, 
Louis Menard, Louis Montreuil, Samuel l^eal, Alexis 
Pera, Francois Pera, James Power, Raphael Proue, 
Oscar Sarpy, Baptiste Tabeau, Charles Taplin, Baptiste 
Tesson, Auguste Vasquez, Joseph Verrot, Patrick White, 
Tiery Wright, Louis Zindel, and Jacob Dodson, a free 
young colored man of Washington city, who vokmteered 
to accompany the expedition. Two Delaware Indians 
were engaged to accompany the expedition as hunters. 
L. Maxwell, who had accompanied the expedition as 
one of the hunters in 18^2, being on his way to Taos, 
in New Mexico, also joined him. He was subsequently 
joined by his invaluable friend, Kit Carson, whom he 



SECOND EXPLOEING EXPEDITION. 71 

was so fortunate as to fall in with on the conjfines of 
Kew Mexico.* 

, The party was armed generally with Hall's carbines, 
'A^hiph, with a brass 12-lb. howitzer, had beert furnished to 

* As Kit Carson figures somewhat extensively in the reports of Col. 
Fremont, to whom he proved of incalculable service in each of his seve- 
ral exploring expeditions, we submit the following sketch of his life 
gathered mainly from his own lips. 

Christopher Carson was born in Kentucky in the year 1810 or ISll ; 
(lis father having been one of the early settlers, and also a noted hunter 
md Indian fighter. In the year following Kit's birth the family moved to 
che territory of Missouri. On this frontier, bred to border life, he remained 
to the age of fifteen, when he joined a trading party to Santa Fe. In- 
stead of returning, Kit found his way by various adventures south, 
through New Mexico to the Copper mines of Chihuahua, where he 
passed nine months as a teamster. 

When about seventeen he made his first expedition as a trapper on the 
Rio Colorado of California. The enterprise was successful, though 
attended with considerable dangers, the Mexicans being even at that 
early day very jealous of American enterprise. He made good his 
return to Tao in New Mexico, and soon after joined a trapping party 
to the head waters of the Arkansas River, whence he went northward to 
the region of the Rocky Mountains which gives rise to the Mississippi 
and Columbia rivers, where he remained engaged in the trapping busi- 
ness eight years. He became noted throughout that region and on 
both sides of the Rocky Mountains, as a successful trapper, an unfail- 
ing shot, an unerring guide, and for bravery, sagacity, and steadiness in 
all circumstances. He was chosen to lead in almost all enterprises of 
unusual danger, and in all attacks on the Indians. At one time with a 
party of twelve, he tracked a band of near sixty Crows who had stolen 
some of the horses belonging to the trappers ; cut loose the animals which 
were tied within ten feet of the strong fort of logs in which the Indians 
had taken shelter ;■ attacked them and made good his retreat with the 
recovered horses, an Indian of another party who was with the trappers 
bringing away a Crow scalp as a trophy. In one combat with the Black- 
feet Indians, Carson received a rifle ball which broke his left shoulder. 
Save this, he escaped the manifold dangers to which he was exposed 
without serious bodily injury. 
Of course in so turbulent and unrestrained a life, where there were no 



72 LIFE AND SEllVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

him from the United States Arsenal at St. Louis, agree- 
ably to the orders of Col. S. W. Kearney, commanding 
the third military division. We are thus particular in 
mentioning, this piece of ordnance for reasons which 

laws and no pri.sons, there were not unfrequent personal rencontres 
amongst the trappers, nor could the most peaceably disposed always 
avoid them. On one occasion a Frenchman who ranked as a bully, and 
had whipped a good many Canadians, insulted the Americans by saying 
they were only fit to be whipped with switches. Carson resented this 
instantly by saying that he was the most trifling one among the Ameri- 
cans, and that the braggart had better begin with him. • After exchang- 
ing a few more words, each went awaj- and armed himself, Carson with a 
pistol, the Frenchman with a rifle, and both mounted for the fight. 
Riding up until the horses' heads nearly touched — both fired almost at 
the same instant. Carson was a little the quickest, however, and his ball 
passing through the Frenchman's head, made him jerk up his gun, and 
sent the ball, which was intended for Carson's heart, grazing by his left 
eye and singeing his hair. This is, he says, the only serious personal 
quarrel he ever had. 

Col. Fremont owed his good fortune in procuring Carson's services to 
an accidental meeting on board the steamboat above St. Louis, neither 
having ever heard of the other before, as he was setting out on his first 
expedition. Carson remained with him until he recrossed the mountains. 
His courage, fidelity, and excellent character, so completely won the 
heart of his commander that in his second expedition he was glad to 
avail himself of Kit's services, on fiilling in with him as he chanced to do 
on the confines of Now Mexico. Kit again left the party on its arrival 
this side of the mountains — not however, until Fremont had obtained a 
promise from him to join the third expedition in case one should be 
organized, a promise which he faithfully kept under circumstances calcu- 
lated to test his devotion to his late commander. In the interim between 
the second and third expeditions, Carson had settled himself near Taos 
and had begun to farm, preparing to lead a quiet life, when he received 
a note from Fremont, written at Bent's Fort reminding him of his pro- 
mise and telling him that he waited there for him. In four days from 
the receipt of this note, Carson joined the party, having sold house and 
farm for less than half the sum he had first expended on it, and put his 
family under the protection of a friend, the late Gov. Bent, until he 
should return from a certainly long and dj),ngerous journey. This pro- 



SECOND p:xploeinq expedition. 73 

will appear presentlj. Three men were especially de- 
tailed for its service, under the charge of Louis Zindel, 
a native of Germany, who had been nineteen years a 
non-commissioned officer of artillery in the Prussian 
army, and regularly instructed in the duties of his pro- 
fession. The camp equipage and provisions were trans- 
ported in twelve carts, drawn each by two mules ; and a 
light covered wagon, mounted on good springs, had 
been provided for the safe carriage of instruments. 
These were: One refracting telescope, by Frauenhofer; 
one- reflecting circle, by Gambey; two sextants, by 
Troughton ; one ^^ocket chronometer, No. 837, by Goffe, 
Falmouth ; one pocket chronometer, ISTo. 739, by Brock- 
bank ; one syphon barometer, by Bunten, Paris ; one 
cistern barometer, by Frye & Shaw, New York ; six 
thermometers, and a number of small compasses. 

To make the exploration as useful as possible, Mr. 
Fremont determined to vary the route to the Rocky 
Mountains from that followed in the year 18J:2. The 
route was then up»the valley of the Great Platte River 
to the South Pass, in north latitude 428 ; the route now 
determined on was up the valley of the Kansas River, to 
the head of the Arkansas River, and to some pass in the 
mountains, if any could be found, at its source. 

By making this deviation from the former route, the 
jDroblem of a new road to Oregon and California, in a 



tection unfortunately proved insuflBcient, for at the infamous Taos massa- 
cre whieli soon ensued, Carson's brotlier-in-law was massacred, and Mrs. 
Carson only saved her life by flight, leaving her house to be pillaged by 
the Mexicans. 

When Carson was in Washington in 1847, he received from President 
Polk the commission of lieutenant in the rifle regiment of which Col. 
Fremont was lieutenant colonel. 

4 



74 LIFE AND SERVICI58 OF JOHN C. FKEMONT. 

climate more genial, might be solved; and a better 
knowledge obtained of an important river, and the 
country it drained, while the great object of the expe- 
dition would find its point of commencement at the ter- 
mination of the former, which was at that great gate in 
the ]-idge of the Ilocky Mountains called the South 
Pass, and on the lofty ])eak of the mountain which over- 
looks it, deemed the highest peak in the ridge, and from 
the opposite sides of which four great rivers take their 
rise, and flow to the Pacific or the Mississippi. 

The party started fiom the little town of Kansas on 
the 29th of ^lay, 1843, and did not get back to the 
United States again until August of the following year. 
AVhat they accomplished and what they endured could 
not be more forcil)ly described than it has been by 
Colonel Benton, who gives facts in regard to the course 
taken by our government towards this ex^)edition which 
were never before revealed. We give what he saj'S of 
this expedition therefore, entire.* 

"'The government deserves credit for the zeal with which it 
has pursued geogiaphical discovery.' Such is the remark which a 
leading paj)er made upon the discoveries of Fiemont, on his 
return from his second expedition to the great West ; and such 
is tlie remark which all writers will make upon all his discover- 
ies who write history from public documents and outside views. 
"With all such writei's the expeditions of Fremont will he 
credited to the zeal of the government for tlie j)romot,ion of 
K-ience, as if the government under which he acted had 
conceived and planned these expeditions, as Mr. Jetierson did 
that of Lewis and Clark, and then selected this young officer to 
carry into eflect the instructions delivered to him. How far 

• Thirty Years^ View, vol. ji. chap. 134, 



SECOND EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 75 

such history -n-oukl be true in relation to the first expedition, 
wliich terminated in the Eocky Mountains, has been seen in the 
account which has been given of the origin of that undertaking, 
and which leaves the government innocent of its conception ; 
and, therefore, not entitled to the credit of its authorship, but 
only to the merit of permitting it. In the second, and greater 
expedition, from which great political as well as scientific results 
have flowed, their merit is still less ; for, while equally innocent 
of its conception, they were not equally passive to its perform- 
ance — countermanding the expedition after it had begun — and 
lavishing censure upon the adventurous young explorer for his 
manner of undertaking it. The fact was, that his first expedition 
barely finished, Mr. Fremont sought and obtained orders for a 
second one, and was on the frontier of Missouri with his com- 
mand when orders arrived at St. Louis to stop him, on the 
ground that he had made a military equipment which the peace- 
ful nature of his geographical pursuit did not require! as if In- 
dians did not kill and rob scientific men as well as others if not in 
a condition to defend themselves. The particular point of com- 
plaint was that he had taken a small mountain howitzer, in ad- 
dition to his rifles ; and which, he was informed, was charged to 
him, although it had been furnished upon a regular requisition 
on the commandant of the arsenal at St. Louis, approved by the 
corhmander of the military department (Colonel, afterward Gen- 
eral Kearney). Mr. Fremont had left St. Louis, and was at the 
frontier, Mrs. Fremont being requested to examine the letters 
that came after him, and forward those Avhich he ought to re- 
ceive. She read the countermanding orders and detained 
them ! and Fremont knew nothing of their existence, until 
after ho had returned from one of the most marvellous and 
eventful expeditions of modern times — one to which the United 
States are indebted (among other things) for the present own- 
ership of California, instead of seeing it a British possession. 
The writer of this View, who was then in St. Louis, approved of 
the course which his daughter had taken (for she had stopped 



76 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

the orders before he knew it) ; and he wrote a letter to the 
department condemning the recall, repulsing the reprimand 
which had been lavifhed upon Fremont, and demanding a court- 
martial for him when he should return. The Secretary of War 
was then Mr. James Madison Porter, of Pennsylvania; the 
chief of the topographical corps the same as now (Colonel 
Abeit), himself an office man, surrounded by West Point offi- 
cers, to whose pursuit of easy service, Fremont's adventurous 
expeditions was a reproach ; and in conformity to whose opi- 
nions the secretary seemed to have acted. On Fremont's return, 
upwards of a year afterwards, Mr. William \^'ilkins, of Penn- 
sylvania, was Secretary of Wai", and received the young explorer 
with all honor and friendship, and obtained for him the brevet 
of captain from President Tyler. And such is the inside view of 
this piece of history — very different from what documentary 
evidence would make it. 

" To complete his survey across the continent, on the line of 
travel between the State of Missouri and the tiile-water region 
of the Columbia, was Fremont's object in this expedition ; an~d 
it was all that he had obtained orders for doing ; but only a small 
part, and to his mind, an insignificant part, of what he proposed 
doing. People had been to the mouth of the Columbia before, 
and his ambition was not limited to making tracks where others 
had made them before him. There was a vast region beyond 
the Rocky Mountains — the whole western slope of our continent 
— of which but little was known ; and of that little, nothing 
with the accuracy of science. All that vast region, more than 
seven hundred miles square — equal to a great kingdom in Europe 
— was an unknown laud — a sealed book, whicli he longed to 
open, and to read. Leaving the frontier of Missouri in May, 
]843, and often diverging from his route for the sake of expand- 
ing his field of observation, he had arrived in the tide-water 
region of Columbia in the month of November; and had then 
completed the whole service which his orders embraced. He 
might then have returned upon his tracks, or been brought home 



SECOND EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 77 

by sea, or hunted the most pleasant path for getting back ; and 
if he had been a routine ofBcer, satisfied with fulfilling an order, 
he would have done so. Not so the young explorer, who held 
his diploma from nature, and not from the United States Mili- 
tary Academy. He was at Fort Vancouver, guest of the hospi- 
table Dr. McLaughlin, Governor of the British Hudson Bay 
Fur Company ; and obtained from him all possible information 
upon his intended line of return — faithfully given, but which 
proved to be disastrously erroneous in its leading and governing 
feature. A southeast route to cross the great unknown region 
diagonally through its heart (making a line from the Lower 
Columbia to the Upper Colorado of the Gulf of California), was 
his line of return : twenty-five men (the same who had come 
with him from the United States) and a hundred horses, were his 
equipment ; and the commencement of winter the time of start- 
ing — all without a guide, relying upon their guns for support ; 
and, in the last resort, upon their horses — such as should give 
out ! for one that could carry a man, or a pack, could not be 
spared for food. 

" AH the maps up to that time had shown this region traversed 
from east to west — from the base of the Rocky Mountains to the 
Bay of San Francisco — by a great river called the Buena Ven- 
tura : which may be translated, the Good Chance. Governor 
McLaughlin believed in the existence of this river, and made out 
a conjectural manuscript map to show its place and course. 
Fremont believed in it, and his plan was to reach it before the 
dead of winter, and then hybernate upon it. As a great river 
he knew that it must have some rich bottoms, covered with 
wood and grass, where the wild animals would collect and shel- 
ter, when the snows and freezing winds drove them from the 
plains : and with these animals to live on, and grass for the horses, 
and w ood for fires, he expected to avoid sufi'ering, .if not to 
enjoy comfort, during his solitary sojourn in that remote and pro- 
found wilderness. 

" He proceeded — soon encountered deep snows which impeded 



78 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

progress upon the highlands — descended into a low country to 
the left (afterwards known to be the Great Basin, fi-om which no 
water issues to any sea) — skirted an enormous chain of mountain 
on the right, "luminous with glittering white snow — saw strange 
Indians, who mostly fled — found a desert — no Buena Ventura ; 
and death from cold and famine staring him in the face. The 
failure to find the river, or tidings of it, and the possibility of its 
existence seeming to be forbid by the structure of the country, 
and hybernation in the inhospitable desert being impossible, and 
the question being that of life and death, some new plan of con- 
duct became indispensable. His celestial observations told him 
that he was in the latitude of the Bay of San Francisco, and only 
seventy miles from it. But what miles ! up and down that 
snowy mountain which the Indians told him no men could cross 
in the winter — which would have snow upon it as deep as the 
trees, and places where people would slip off, and fall half a mile 
at a time ; — a fate which actually befell a mule, packed with the 
precious burden of botanical specimens, collected along a travel 
sf two thousand miles. No reward could induce an Indian to 
'become a guide in the perilous adventure of crossing this moun- 
tain. All recoiled and fled from the adventure. It was 
attempted without a guide — in the dead of winter — accomplished 
in forty days — the men and surviving horses — a woeful proces- 
sion, crawling along one by one ; skeleton men leading skeleton 
horses — and arriving at Sutter's Settlement in the beautiful valley 
of the Sacramento ; and where a genial warmth, and budding 
flowers, and trees in foliage, and grassy ground, and flowing 
streams, and comfortable food, made a fairy contrast with the 
famine and freezing they had encountered, and the lofty Sierra 
Nevada which they had climbed. Here he rested and recruited ; 
ind from this point, and by way of Monterey, the first tidings 
were heard of the party since leaving Fort Vancouver. 

" Another long progress to the south, skirting the western base 
of the Sierra Nevada, made him acquainted with the noble 
valley of the San Joaquin, counterpart to that of the Sacra- 



SECOND EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 79 • 

/nento; when crossing tliroiigli a gap, and turning to the left, he 
skirted the Great Basin ; and by many deviations from the right 
line home, levied incessant contributions to science from expanded 
lands, not described before. In tliis eventful exploration, all the 
great features of the western slope of our continent were brought 
to light — the Great Salt Lake, the Utah Lake, the Little Salt 
Lake ; at all which places, then deserts, the Mormons now are ; 
the Sierra Nevada, then solitary in the snow, now crowded with 
Americans, digging gold from its flanks : the beautiful valleys of 
the Sacramento and San Joaquin, then alive with wild horses, elk, 
deer, and wild fowls, now smiling with American cultivation ; 
the Great Basin itself, and its contents ; the Three Parks ; the 
approximation of the great rivers which, rising together in the 
central . region of the Rocky Mountains, go off east and west, 
towards the rising and the setting sun — all these, and othe' ' 
strange features of a new region, more Asiatic than American) 
were brought to light and revealed to public view in the results 
of this exploration. 

"Eleven months he was never out ol sight of snow; and 
sometimes, freezing with cold, would look down upon a sunny 
valley, warm with genial heat ; — sometimes panting with the 
summer's heat, woitld look up at the eternal snows which crowned 
the neighboring mountain. But it was not then that California 
was secured to the Union — to the greatest power of the New 
World — to which it of right belonged ; but it was the first step 
towards the acquisition, and the one that led to it. The second 
expedition led to a third, just in time to snatch the golden Cali- 
fornia from the hands of the British, ready to clutch it. But of 
this hereafter. Fremont's second expedition was now over. lie 
had left the United States a fugitive from his government, and 
returned with a name that went over Europe and America, and 
with discoveries bearing fruit which the civilized world is now 
enjoying." 

Thrilling as this brief sketch bj Col. Benton is, it con- 



80 LIFE AND SICKVJCKS OK .fOIlN C. FKEMONT. 

vejs to tlie reader but an imperfect idea of tlie liardships 
of tills awful journey, and of .the licroism of the little 
build who endured them. Fremont set out from the town 
of Kansas, as we have already stated, on the 20th of May. 
On the 6th of September, and after travelling over 
1,700 miles, he came in sight of the Salt Lake, the most 
important geographical result of his travels to that point. 
Tlie description of his approach to this Inland Sea, as he 
then terined it, and his perilous voyage to an island with 
which it was gemmed in his linen boat, the first of any 
. kind that ever ploughed that unexplored water, cannot be 
given to better advantage than in his own words. The 
night before they had encamped a few miles distant on 
what was known as Weber's Fork, a stream from 100 to 
150 feet w^ide. He continued his narrative as follows : 

" September Gth. — Leaving the encampment early, we again 
directed our course for the peninsular butte across a low shrubby 
plain, crossing in the way a slougli-like creek, -with miry banks, 
and wooded with thickets of thorn {cratcegus) which were loaded 
with berries. This time we reached the butte without any diffi- 
culty, and, ascended to the summit, immediately at our feet 
beheld the object of our anxious search — the waters of the Inland 
Sea, stretching in still and solitary grandeur for beyond the limit 
of our vision. It was one of the great points of the exploration; 
and as we looked eagerly over the lake in the first emotions of 
excited pleasure, I am doubtful if the followers of Balboa felt 
more enthusiasm when, from the heights of the Andes, they saw 
for the first time the great western ocean. It was certainly a 
magnificent object, and a noble terminus to this part of our expe- 
dition ; and to travellers so long shut up among mountain ranges, 
a sudden view over the expanse of silent waters had in it some- 
thing sublime. Several large islands raised their high rocky peaks 
out of the waves ; but whether or not they were timbered, was 



SECOND EXPLOEING EXPEDITION. 81 

still left to our imagination, as the distance was too great to 
determine if the dark hues upon them were woodland or naked 
rock. During the day, the clouds had heen gathering black 
over the mountains to the westward, and, while we were looking, 
a storm burst down with sudden fury upon the lake, and entirely 
bid the islands from our view. So far as we could see, along the 
shores there was not a solitary tree, and but little appearance 
of grass ; and on Weber's Fork, a few miles below our last 
encampment, the timber was gathered into groves, and then dis- 
appeared entirely. As this appeared to be the nearest point to 
the lake where a suitable camp could be found, we directed our 
course to one of the groves, where we found a handsome encamp- 
ment, with good grass and an abundance of rushes (^equisetum 
hyemaU). At sunset the thermometer was 55°; the evening 
clear and calm, with some cumuli. 

" September 1. — The morning was calm and clear, with a tem- 
perature at sunrise of 39° 5'. The day was spent in active 
preparation for our intended voyage on the lake. On th? edge 
of the stream a favorable spot was selected in a grove, and, 
felling the timber, we made a strong corral^ or horse pen, for the 
animals, and a little fort for the people who were to remain. 
We were now probably in the country of the Utah Indians, 
though none reside upon the lake. The India-rubber boat was 
repaired with prepared cloth and gum, and filled with air, in 
readiness for the next day. 

" The provisions which Carson had brought with him being 
now exhausted, and our stock reduced to a small quantity of 
roots, I determined to retain with me only a sufficient number 
of men for the execution of our design ; and accordingly seven 
were sent back to Fort Hall, under the guidance of Francois 
Lajeunesse, who, having been for many years a trapper in the 
country, was considered an experienced mountaineer. Though 
they were provided with good horses, and the road was a re- 
markably plain one, of only four days' journey for a horseman, 
they became bewildered (as we afterwards learned), and losing 

4* 



82 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN 0. FREMONT. 

their way, wandered about the country in parties of one or two, 
reaching the fort about a week afterwards Some straggled in 
of themselves, and the others were brought in by Indians who 
had picked them upon Snake River, about sixty miles below the 
fort, travelling along the emigrant road in full march for the 
Lower Columbia. The leader of this adventurous party was 
Frangois. 

" We formed now but a small family. With Mr. Preuss and 
myself, Carson, Bernier, and Basil Lajeunesse, had been selected 
for the boat expedition — the first ever attempted on this interior 
sea; and Badeau, with Derosier, and Jacob (the colored man), 
were to be left in charge of the camp. We were favored with 
most delightful weather. To-night there was a brilliant sunset 
of golden orange and green, which left the western sky clear and 
beautifully pure ; but clouds in the east made me lose an occul- 
tation. The summer frogs were singing around us, and the even- 
ing was very pleasant, with a temperature of 66° — a night of a 
more southeru autumn. For our supper we had yamjpah, the 
most agreeably flavored of the roots, seasoned by a small fat 
duck, which had come in the way of Jacob's rifle. Around our 
fire to-night were many speculations on what to-morrow would 
bring forth, and in our busy conjectures we fancied that we 
should find every one of the large islands a tangled wilderness 
of trees and shrubbery, teeming with game of every description 
that the neighboring region aiforded, and which the foot of a 
white man or Indian had never violated. Frequently, during the 
day, clouds had rested on the summits of their lofty mountains, 
and we believed that we should find clear streams and springs of 
fresh water ; and we indulged in anticipations of the luxurious 
repasts with which we were to indemnify ourselves for past pri- 
vations. Neither, in our discussions, were the whirlpool and 
other mysterious dangers forgotten, which Indian and hunter's 
stories attributed to this unexplored lake. 

"The men had discovered that, instead of being strongly 
sewed (like that of the preceding year, which had so triumph- 



SECOND KXPLOKINO KXPBDITION. 83 

antly rode the canons of the Upper Great PJatte), our present 
boat was only pasted together in a very insecure manner, the 
maker having been allowed so little time in tlie construction 
that lie was obliged to crowd the labor of two months into seve- 
ral days. The insecurity of the boat was sensibly felt by us ; 
and mingled with the enthusiasm and excitement tliat we all 
felt at the prospect of an undertaking which had never before, 
been accomplished, was a certam impression of danger, sufli- 
cient to give a serious character to our conversation. The 
momentary view which had been had of the lake the day before, 
its great extent and rugged islands, dimly seen amidst the waters 
in the obscurity of the sudden storm, were well calculated to 
heighten the idea of undefined danger with which the lake was 
generally associated. 

■" September 8. — A calm, clear day, with a sunrise temperature 
of 41°. In view of our present enterprise, a part of the equip- 
ment of the boat had been made to consist in three air-tight 
bags, about three feet long, and capable each of containing five 
gallons. These had been filled with water the night before, 
and were now placed in the boat, with our blankets and instru- 
ments, consisting of a sextant, telescope, spy-glass, thermometer, 
and barometer. 

" We left the camp at sunrise, and had a very pleasant voyage 
down the river, in which there was generally eight or ten feet of 
water, deepening as we neared the mouth in the latter part of 
the day. In the course of the morning we discovered that two 
of the cylinders leaked so much as to require one man constantly 
at the bellows, to keep them sufficiently full of air to support the 
boat. Although we had made a very early start, we loitered so 
much on the way — stopping every now and then, and floating 
silently along, to get a shot at a goose or a d«ck — that it was 
late in the day when we reached the outlet. The river here 
divided into several branches, filled with fluvials, and so very 
shallow that it was with difficulty we could get the boat along, 
being obliged to get out and wade. We encamped on a low 



S4 LLFJS AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREilONT. 

point among ruslies and young willows, where there was a quan- 
tity of drift wood, which served for our fires. The evening was 
mild and clear ; we made a pleasent bed of the young willows ; 
and geese and ducks enough had been killed for an abundanl 
supper at night, and for breakfest the next morning. The still 
ness of the night was enlivened by millions of water fowl 
Latitude (by observation) 41° 11' 26"; and longitude 112' 
11' 30". 

" September 9. — The day was clear and calm ; the therraome 
ter at sunrise at 49°. As usual with the trappers on the eve ot 
any enterprise, our people had made dreams, and theirs hap- 
pened to be a bad one — one which always preceded evil — and 
consequently they looked very gloomy this morning ; but we 
hurried through our breakfast, in order to make an early start, 
and have all the day before us for our adventure. The channel 
in a short distance became so shallow that our navigation was at 
an end, being merely a sheet of soft mud, with a few inches of 
water, and sometimes none at all, forming the low-water shoi-e 
of the lake. All this place was absolutely covered with llocks 
of screaming plover. We took off our clothes, and, getting 
overboard, commenced dragging the boat — making, by this ope- 
ration, a very curious trail, and a very disagreeable smell in stir- 
ring up the mud, as we sank above the knee at every step. The 
water here was still fresh, with only an insipid and disagree- 
able taste, probably derived from the bed of fetid mud. After 
proceeding in this way about a mile, we came to a small black 
ridge on the bottom, beyond which the water became suddenly 
salt, beginning gradually to deepen, and the bottom was sandy 
and firm. It was a remarkable division, separating the fresh 
waters of the rivers from the briny water of the lake, which was 
entirely saturateR with common salt. Pushing our little vessel 
across the narrow boundary, we sprang on board, and at length 
were afloat on the waters of the unknown sea. 

" We did not steer for the mountainous islands, but directed 
our course towards a lower one, which it had been decided we 



SEcOND EXPLOKING EXPEDITION. 85 

should first visit, the summit of which was formed like the cra- 
ter at the upper end of Bear River valley. So long as we could 
touch the bottom with our paddles, we were very gay ; but 
gradually, as the water deepened, we became more still in our 
frail bateau of gum cloth distended with air, and Avith pasted 
seams. Although the day was very calm, there was a considera- 
ble swell on the lake ; and there were white patches of foam on 
the surface, which were slowly moving to the southward, inii 
eating the set of a current in that direction, and recalling the 
recollection of the whirlpool stories. The water continued to 
deepen as we advanced ; the lake becoming almost transparently 
clear, of an extremely beautiful bright-green color ; and the spray, 
which was thrown' into the boat and over our clothes, was di- 
rectly converted into a crust of common salt, which covered also 
our hands and arms. ' Captain,' said Carson, who for some time 
had been looking suspiciously at some whitening appearances 
outside the nearest island, " what are those yonder? — won't you 
just take a look with the glass ?" We ceased paddling,for a 
moment, and found them to be the caps of the waves that were 
beginning to break under the force of a strong breeze that was 
coming up the lake. 

" The form of the boat seemed to be an admirable one, and it 
rode on the waves like a water bird ; but at the same time, it 
was slow in its progress. When we were little more than half 
way across the reach, two of the divisions between the cylinders 
gave way, and it required the constant use of the bellows to 
keep in a suflScient quantity of air. For a long time we scarcely 
seemed to approach our island, but gradually we worked across 
the rougher sea of the open channel, into the smoother water 
.mder the lee of the island ; and began to discover that what 
we took for a long row of pelicans, ranged on the beach, were 
only low cliffs, whitened with salt by the spray of the waves ; 
and about noon we reached the shore, the transparency of the 
water enabling us to see the bottom at a considerable depth. 

" It was a handsome broad beach where we landed, behind 



86 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOUN 0. FKEMONT. 

wliicli the hill, into which the island was gathered, rose some- 
what abruptly ; and a point of rock at one end enclosed it in a 
sheltering way ; and as there was an abundance of drift wood 
along the shore, it offered us a pleasant encampment. We did 
not sutler our fragile boat to touch the sharp rocks, but gettingover- 
board, discharged the baggage, and lifting it gently out of the 
water, carried it to the upper part of the beach, which was com- 
posed of very small fragments of rock. 

"Among the successive banks of the beach, formed by the 
action of the waves, our attention, as we approached the island, 
had been attracted by one 10 to 20 feet in breadth, of a dark- 
brown color. Being more closely examined, this was found to 
be composed, to the depth of seven or eight and twelve inches, 
entij-ely of the larvcs of insects, or, in common language, of 
the skins of worms, about the size of a grain of oats, which 
had been washed up by the waters of the lake. 

" The cliff's and masses of rock along the shore were whit- 
ened by an incrustation of salt where the waves dashed up 
against them ; and the evaporating water, which had been 
left in holes and hollows on the surface of the rocks, was 
covered with a crust of salt about one-eighth of an inch in 
thickness. It appeared strange that, in the inidst of this grand 
reservoir, one of our greatest wants lately had been salt. Ex- 
posed to be more perfectly di'ied in the sun, this became very 
white and fine, having the usual flavor of very excellent com 
mon salt, without any foreign taste ; but only a little was col- 
lected for present use, as there was in it a number of small 
black insects. 

" Carrying with us the barometer, and other instruments, in 
the afternoon we ascended to the highest point of the island 
— a bare rocky peak, 800 feet above the lake. Standing on the 
summit, we enjoyed an extended view of the lake, enclosed in a 
basin of rugged mountains, which sometimes left marshy flats 
and extensive bottoms between them and the shore, and in other 
places came directly down into the water with bold and precipi- 



SECOND EXPLOKING EXPEDITION. 87 

tous bluffs. Following with our glasses the irregular shores, we 
secirched for some iiidications of a coramuuication with other 
bodies of water, or the entrance of other rivers ; but the dis- 
tance was so great that we .could raakfe out nothing with cer- 
tainty. To the southward, several peninsular mountains, 3,000 
or 4,000 feet high, entered the lake, appearing, so far as the 
distance and our position enabled us to determine, to be con- 
nected by flats and low ridges with the mountains in the rear. 
These are probably the islands usually indicated on maps of this 
region as entirely detached from the shore. The season of our 
operations was when the waters were at their lowest stage. At 
the season of high waters in the spring, it is probable that the 
marshes and low grounds are overtiowed, and the surface of the 
lake considerably greater. In several places the view was of un- 
limited extent — here and there a rocky islet appearing above the 
water at a gi-eat distance ; and beyond, everything was vague 
and undefined. As we looked over the vast expanse of water 
spread out beneath us, and strained our eyes along the silent 
shores over which hung so much doubt and uncertainty, and 
which were so full of interest to us, I could hardly repress the 
almost irresistible desire to continue our exploration ; but the 
lengthening snow on the mountains was a plain indication of the 
advancing season, and our frail linen boat appeared so insecure 
that I was unwilling to trust our lives to the uncertainties of the 
lake. I therefore unwillingly resolved to terminate our survey 
here, and remain satisfied for the present with what we had 
been able to add the unknown geography of the region. We 
felt pleasure also in remembering that we were the first who, in 
traditionary annals of the country, had visited the islands, and 
broken, with the cheerful sound of human voices, the long soli- 
tude of the place. From the point where we were standing, the 
ground fell otf on every side to the water, giving us a perfect 
view of the island, which is twelve or thirteen miles in circumt- 
ference, being simply a rocky hill, on which there is neither 
water nor trees of any kind ; although the Fremontia vermicu' 



88 LITE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C, FKEMONT. 

laris, ■which was in great abundance, might easily be mistaken 
for timber at a distance. The plant seemed here to delight in a 
congenial air, growing in extraordinary luxuriance seven to 
eight feet high, and was very abundant on the upper parts of 
the island, where it Avas almost the only plant. This is eminent- 
ly a saline shrub ; its leaves have a very salt taste ; and it luxu- 
riates in saline soils, where it is usually a characteristic. It is 
widely diffused over all this country. A chanopodiaceous shrub, 
which is a new species of obione (O. rigida, Torr. Sf Frem.), 
was equally characteristic of the lower parts of the island. 
These two are the striking plants on the island, and belong to 
a class of plants which form a prominent feature in the vege- 
tation of this country. On the lower parts of the island, also, 
a prickly pear of very large size was frequent. On the shore, 
near the water, was a woolly species of phaca ; and a new spe- 
cies of umbelliferous plant (leptotcemia) was scattered about in 
very considerable abundance. These constituted all the vegeta- 
tion that now appeared upon the island. 

" I accidentally left on the summit the brass cover to the 
object end of my spy-glass ; and as it will probably remain 
there undisturbed by Indians, it will furnish matter of specu- 
lation to some future traveller. In our excursions about the 
island, we did not meet with any kind of animal ; a magpie, 
and another larger bird, probably attracted by the smoke of 
our fire, paid us a visit from the shore, and were the only 
living things seen during our stay. The rock constituting the 
cliffs along the shore where we were encamped, is a talcous 
rock, or steatite, with brown spar. 

" At sunset, the temperature was 10°. We had arrived 
just in time to obtain a meridian altitude of the sun, and 
other observations were obtained this evening, which place 
our camp in latitude 41°10' 42", and longitude 112° 21' 05" 
from Greenwich. From a discussion of the barometrical obser- 
vations made during our stay on the shores of the lake, we have 
adopted 4,200 feet for its elevation above the gulf of Mexico. 



SECOND p:xploeing expedition. 8y 

In the first disappointment we felt from the dissipation of our 
dream of the fertile islands, I called this Disaiypointment Island. 

" Out of the drift wood, we made ourselves pleasant little 
lodges, open to the water, and, after having kindled large fires to 
excite the wonder of any straggling savage on the lake shores, 
lay down, for the first time in a long journey, in perfect security ; 
no one thinking about his arms. The evening was extremely 
bright and pleasant ; but the wind rose during the night, and 
the waves began to break heavily on the shore, making our 
island tremble. I had not expected in our inland journey to 
hear the roar of an ocean surf; and the strangeness of our 
situation, and the excitement we felt in the associated interests 
of the place, made this one of the most interesting nights I re- 
member during our long expedition. 

" In the Hiorning the surf was breaking heavily on the shore, 
and we were up early. The lake was dark and agitated, and we 
hurried through our scanty breakfast, and embarked — hanng 
first filled one of the buckets with water from the lake, of which 
it was intended to make salt. The sun had risen by the time we 
were ready to start ; and it was blowing a strong gale of wind, 
almost directly ofi" the shore, and raising 3 considerable sea, in 
which our boat strained very much. It roughened as we got 
away from the island, and it required all the efibrts of the men 
to make any head against the wind and sea, the gale rising with 
the sun ; and there was danger of being blown into one of the 
open reaches beyond the island. At the distance of half a mile 
from the beach, the depth of water was sixteen feet, with a clay 
bottom ; but, as the working of the boat was very severe labor, 
and during the operation of rounding it was necessary to cease 
paddling, during which the boat lost considerable way, I was 
unwilling to discourage the men, and reluctantly gave up my 
intention of ascertaining the depth, and the character of the bed. 
There was a general shout in the boat when we found ourselves 
in one fathom, and we soon after landed on a low point of mud, 
immediately under the butte of the peninsula, where we unloaded 



90 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

the boat and carried the baggage about a quarter of a mile to 
firmer ground. We arrived just in time for meridian observa- 
tion, and carried the barometer to the .summit of the butte, which 
is 500 feet above the lake. Mr. Preuss set ofi" on foot for the 
camp, which was about nine miles distant; Basil accompanying 
him to bring back horses for the boat and baggage. 

" The rude-looking shelter we raised on the shore, our scat- 
tered baggage and boat lying on the beach, made quite a picture ; 
and we called this the Fisliermaii's Camp. Lynosiris graveolens, 
and another new species of obione (0 confertifolia— Tbr/'. <& 
Frem.), were growing on the low grounds, with interspersed 
spots of an unwholesome salt grass, on a saline clay soil, with a 
few other plants. 

"The horses arrived late in the afternoon, by which time the 
gale had increased to such a height that a man could scarcely 
stand before it; and we were obliged to pack our baggage 
hastily, as the rising water of the lake had already reached the 
point where we were halted. Looking back as w^e rode oflf, we 
found the place of recent encampment entirely covered. The 
low plain through which we rode to the camp w^as covered with 
a compact growth o£ shrubs of extraordinary size and luxuriance. 
The soil was sandy and saline ; flat places, resembling the beds 
of ponds, that were bare of vegetation, and covered with a pow- 
dery white salt, being interspersed among the shrubs. Artemisia 
tridentata was very abundant, but the plants were principally 
saline ; a large and vigorous chenopodiaceous shrub, fire to 
eight feet high, being characteristic, with Fremontia vermicu- 
laris, and a shrubby plant which seems to be a new salicornia. 
We rea(;hed the catnp in time to escape a thunder storm which 
blackened the sky, and were received with a discharge of the 
howitzer by the people, who, having been unable to see any- 
thing of us on the lake, had begun to feel some uneasiness." 

On tlie 4tli of ISTovember, Col. Fremont and his 
party readied Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia River, 



SECOND EXPLOEINa EXPEDITION. 91 

the appointed terminus of his journey. He remarks 
in his journal that it would have been very gratifying 
to have gone down to the Pacific, and solely in the 
interest and in the love of geography, to have seen the 
ocean on the western as well as on the eastern side of 
the continent, so as to give a satisfactory completeness 
to the geographical picture which had been formed in 
his mind ; but the rainy season had now regularly set 
in, and the air was filled with fogs and rain, which left 
no beauty in any scenery, and obstructed observations. 
The object of his instructions had been entirely fulfilled 
in having connected his reconnoissance with the sur- 
veys of Captain Wilkes ; and although it would have 
been agreeable and satisfactory to have completed 
there his astronomical observations, he did not feel that 
for Buch a reason he would be justified in waiting for 
favorable weather. He therefore signified his intention 
to his companions to set out for the east without an home's 
unnecessary delay. 



92 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FKEMOKT. 



CHAPTEK Y. 

SECOND EXPLORING EXPEDITION CONTINUED — SETS OUT FROM 

. FORT VANCOUVER INTERESTING INDIAN COUNCIL — SPEECH 

OF COL. FREMONT JOURNEY THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS 

INSANITY OF HIS MEN FROM PRIVATION AND COLD — PREUS3 

LOSES niS WAY ARRIVAL AT THE RANCHE OF CAI'TAIN 

SUTTER. 

In two days, preparations for tlieir return were com- 
pleted, and on the lOtli of November, his little party- 
embarked on their homeward journey, in which he con- 
templated a circuit to the south and southeast, and the 
exploration of the Great Basin between the Rocky 
Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. Three principal 
objects were indicated, by report or by maps, as being 
on this route, the character or existence of which he 
wished to ascertain, and which he assumed as land 
marks, or leading points, on the projected line of 
return. The first of these points was the TlamatJi 
Lake, on the table-land between the head of Fall River, 
which comes to the Columbia, and the Sacramento, 
which goes to the bay of San Francisco ; and from 
which lake a river of the same name makes its way 
westwardly direct to the ocean. The position of this 
lake, on the line of inland communication between 



SECOND EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 93 

Oregon and California; its proximity to the demarka- 
tion boundary of latitude 42° ; its imputed double 
character of lake, or meadow, according to the season of 
the year; and the hostile and warlike character attri- 
buted to the Indians about it — all made it a desirable 
object to visit and examine. From this lake he 
intended to go about southeast, to a reported lake 
called Mary's, distant some days' jouniey in the Great 
Basin ; and thence, still on southeast, to the reputed 
Buenaventura Kiver, which has had a place in many 
maps, couiitenancing a belief in the existence of a 
great river flowing from the Rocky Mountains to the 
bay of San Francisco. From the Buenaventura liis 
destination was that section of the Rocky Mountains 
which includes the heads of Arkansas River, and of the 
opposite waters of the California gulf; and thence 
down the Arkansas to Bent's fort, and home. This was 
his projected line of return — a great part of it abso- 
lutely new to geographical, botanical, and geological 
science — and the subject of endless rumors of lakes, 
rivers, deserts, and savages hardly above the condition 
of wild animals, all tending to inflame his curiosity and 
love of adventure to its highest pitch. 

It was a serious enterprise, at the commencement of 
winter, to undertake the passage of such a region, and 
with a party consisting only of twenty-flve persons, and 
they of many nations — American, French, German, 
Canadian, Indian, and colored — and most of them 
young, several of them being under twenty-one years 
of age. All knew that a strange countiy was to be 
explored, and dangers and hardships to be encountered ; 
but no one blenched at the prospect. On the contrary, 
courage and confidence animated the whole party. 



94 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN O. FEEMOl^r. 

Cheerfulness, readiness, subordination, prompt obedi- 
ence, characterized all ; nor did any extremity of peril 
or privation, to which they were afterwards exposed, 
says Mr. Fremont, ever belie, or dero_<2:ate from, the 
fine spirit of this brave and generous commencement. 

lie was not permitted to execute this plan precisely 
as he had marked it out ; but we must refer to his 
official report, those who wish to know how he was forced 
by desert plains and mountain ranges, and deep snows, 
far to the south, and along the western base of the 
Sierra Nevada ; where, indeed, a new and ample field of 
exploration opened itself before him. The reader will 
be able to form a tolerably satisfactory idea of the 
hardships endured by him and his heroical party 
during the eleven months that he was struggling for a 
passage over the mountains, by a few extracts from 
his journal for the months of January', February, and 
March, which are here submitted. No one can rise 
from the perusal of them without feeling that the 
powers of human endurance had never been so fully 
tested before. 

" January 28th. — To-day we went througli the pass with all 
the camp, and, after a hard day's journey of twelve miles, 
encamped on a high point where the snow had been blown oflf, 
and the exposed grass aftbrded a scanty pasture for the animals. 
Snow and broken countrv together made our travelling difficult. 
We were often compelled to make large circuits, and ascend the 
highest and most exposed ridges in order to avoid snow, which 
in other placet was banked up to a great depth. * * * 

" To-night we did not succeed in getting the howitzer into 
camp. . This was the most laborious day we had yet passed 
through, the steep ascents and deep snow exhausting both D»en 



SECOND EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 95 

and animals. Ouv single chronometer had stopped during the 
day, and its error in time occasioned the loss of an eclipse of a 
satellite this evening. It had not preserved the rate with which 
we started from the Dalles, and this will account for the absence 
of longitudes along this interval of our journey. 

'■'■January 29<A. — Several Indians appeared on the hillside, 
reconnoitring the camp, and were induced to come in ; others 
came in during the afternoon ; and in the evening we held a 
council. The Indians immediately made it clear that the waters 
on which we were, also belong to the Great Basin, in the edge 
of which we had been since the l7th of December; and it 
became evident that we had still the great ridge on the left to 
cross before we could reach the Pacific waters. 

" We explained to the Indians that we were endeavoring to 
find a passage across the mountains into the country of the whites, 
whom we were going to see ; and told them that we wished them 
to bring us a guide, to whom we would give presents of scarlet 
cloth, and other articles, which were shown to them. They 
looked at the reward we offered, and conferred with each other, 
but pointed to the snow on the mountains, and drew their hands 
across their neck and raised them above their heads, to show 
the depth : and signified that jt was impossible for us to get 
through. They made signs that we must go to the south- 
ward, over a pass through a lower range, which they pointed 
out; there, they said, at the end of one day's travel we would 
find people who lived near a pass in the great mountain ; and to 
that point they engaged to furnish us a guide. They appeared 
to have a confused idea, from report, of whites who lived on the 
other side of the mountain ; and once, they told us, about two 
years ago, a party of twelve raenjike ourselves, had ascended 
their river, and crossed to the other waters. They pointed out 
to us where they had crossed ; but then, they said, it was sum- 
mer time ; but now it would be impossible. * * * 

" The Indians brought in during the evening an abundant 
supply of pine-nuts, which we traded froib them. When roasted, 



96 LIFE AND SEBVIOES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

their pleasant flavor made them an agreeable addition to oui 
now scanty store of provisions which were reduced to a very 
low ebb. Our principal stock was in peas, which it is not neces- 
sary to say contain scarcely any nutriment. We had still a 
little flour left, some coffee, and a quantity of sugar, which 1 
reserved as a defence against starvation. 

3f: ^ sfc S}C ^ ■!( 

" The other division of the party did not come in to-night, but 
encamped in the upper meadow, and arrived the next morning. 
They had not succeeded in getting the howitzer beyond the place 
mentioned, and where it had been left by Mr. Preuss in obedience 
to my orders ; and, in anticipation of the snow-banks and snow- 
fields still ahead, foreseeing the inevitable detention to which it 
would subject us, I reluctantly determined to leave it there for 
the time. It was of the kind invented by the French for the 
mountain part of their war in Algiers ; and the distance it had 
come with us proved how well it was adapted to its purpose. 
We left it, to the great sorrow of the whole party, who were 
grieved to part with a companion which had made the whole dis- 
tance from St. Louis, and commanded respect for us on some 
critical occasions, and which might be needed for the same pur- 
pose again. 

^^ January 30. — Our guide, who was a young man, joined us 
this morning ; and leaving our encampment late in the day, we 
descended the river. * * * * 

" With our late start we made but ten miles, and encamped on 
the lower river bottom, where there was no snow, but a great 
deal of ice ; and we cut piles of long grass to lay under our 
blankets, and fires were made of large dry willows, groves of 
which wooded the stream. * * * * 

" January 31. — We took our way over a gently rising ground, 
the dividing ridge being tolerably low ; and travelling easily 
along a broad trail, in twelve or fourteen miles reached the 
upper part of the pass; when it began to snow thickly, with 
very cold weather. The Indians had only the usual scanty 



SECOND EXrr.ORIXG EXPEDITION. 97 

covering, and appeared to suifer greatly from th-e cold. All left 
ns, except our guide. Half hidden by the storm, the mountains 
looked dreary ; and, as night began to approach, the guide 
showed great reluctance to go forward. I placed him between 
two rifles, for the way began to be difficult. Travelling a little 
further, we struck a ravine, which the Indian said would con- 
duct us to the river ; and as the poor fellow suffered greatly, 
shivering in the snow vWiich fell upon his naked skin, I would 
not detain hira any longer; and he ran oS to the mountain, 
where he sa^d there was a hut near by. He had kept the blue 
and scarlet cloths I had given him tightly rolled up, preferring 
rather to endure the cold than to get them wet. In the course 
of the afternoon, one of the men had his foot frost-bitten ; and 
about dark Ave had the satisfaction to reach the bottoms of a 
"tream timbered with large trees, among which we found a 
sheltered camp, with an abundance of such grass as the season 
afforded for the animals. 

" We had scarcely lighted our fires, when the camp was 
crowded with nearly naked Indians ; some of them were furnished 
with long nets in addition to bows, and appeared to have been 
oui on the sage hills to hunt rabbits. These nets \vere perhaps 
thirty to forty feet long, kept upright in the ground by slight 
sticks at intervals, and were made from a kind of wild hemp, 
very much resembling in manufacture those common among the 
Indians of the Sacramento valley. They came among us without 
any fear, and scattered themselves about the fires, mainly 
occupied in gratifying their astonishment, I was struck by the 
singular appearance of a row of about a dozen, who were sitting 
on their haunches perched on a log near one of the fires, with 
their quick sharp eves following every motion. 

" We gathered together a few of the most intelligent of the 
Indians, and held tins evening an interesting council. I explained 
to them my intentions. I told them that we had come from a 
very far country, having been travelling now nearly a year, and 
that we were desirous simply to go across the raountain into the 



98 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOUN C. F]li:MONT. 

country of the other whites. There were two A\ho appeared 
particularly intolligent — one, a somewhat old man. lie told 
me that, before the snow fell, it was six .sleeps to the place where 
the whites lived, but that now it was impossible to cross the 
mountain on account of the deep snow ; and showing- us, as the 
others had done, that it was over our heads, he urged us strongly 
to follow the course of the river, which he said would conduct 
us to a lake in which there were manyJarge fish. Tliere, he 
said, were many people ; there was no snow on the ground ; and 
we might remain there until the spring. 

"From their descriptions, vt-e were enabled to judge that we 
had encamped on the upper waters of the Salmon Trout River. 
It is hardly necessary to say that our communication was otdy 
by signs, as we understood nothing of their language ; but they 
spoke, notwithstanding, rapidly and vehemently, explaining what 
they considered the folly of our intentions, and urging us to go 
down to the lake. Tah-ve^ a word signifying snow, we very 
soon learned to know, from its frequent repetition. I told him 
that the men and the horses wei-e strong, and that we would 
break a road through the snow ; and sprejiding before him our 
bales of scarlet cloth, and trinkets, showed him what we would 
give for a guide. It was necessary to obtain one, if possible, 
for I had determined here to attempt the passage of the moun- 
tain. Pulling a bunch of grass from the ground, after a short 
discussion among themselves, the old man made us comprehend, 
that if we could break through the snow, at the end of three 
days we would come down upon grass, which he showed us 
would be about six inches high, and where the ground was 
entirely free. So far, he said, he had been in hunting for elk ; 
but beyond that (and he closed his eyes) he had seen nothing ; 
but there was one among them who had been to the whites, 
and, going out of the lodge, he returned with a young man of 
very intelligent appearance. Ilere, said he, is a young man who 
has seen the whites with his own eyes ; and he swore, fii"st by 
the sky, and then by the ground, that what he said was true. 



SECOND EXPLOEIKG EXPEDITION. 99 

With a large present of goods, we prevailed upon tliis youno- 
man to be our guide, and he acquired? among us the name Melo 
— a word signifying friend, which they used very frequently. 
lie was thinly clad, and nearly barefoot ; his moccasins being 
about worn out. We gave him skins to make a new paii-, and 
to enable him to perform his undertaking to us. The Indians 
remained in the camp during the night, and we kept the guide 
and two others to sleep in the lodge with us — Carson lying 
across the door, and having made them comprehend the use of 
our fire-arms. The snow, which had intermitted in the evening, 
commenced falling again in the course of the night, and it 
snowed steadily all day. 

" In the morning I acquainted the men with my decision, and 
explained to them that necessity required us to make a great 
effort to clear the mountains. I reminded them of the beautiful 
valley of the Sacramento, with which they were familiar from 
the descriptions of Carson, who had been there some fifteen 
years ago, and who, in our late privations, had delighted us in 
speaking of its rich pastures and abounding game, and drew a 
vivid contrast between its summer climate, less than a hundred 
miles distant, and the falling snow around us. I informed them 
(and long experience had given them confidence in my observa- 
tions and good instruments) that almost directly west, and only 
about seventy miles distant, was the great farming establishment 
of Captain Sutter — a gentleman who had formerly lived in Mis- 
souri, and, emigrating to this country, had become the possessor 
of a principality. I assured them that, from the heights of the 
mountains before us, we should doubtless see the valley of the 
Sacramento River, and with one effort place ourselves again in 
the midst of plenty. The people received this decision with the 
cheerful obedience which had always characterized them ; and 
the day was immediately devoted to the preparations necessary 
to enable us to carry it into effect. Leggings, moccasins, 
cloihing — all were put into the best state to resist the coM. 
Our guide was not neglected. Extremity of suffering might 



100 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. I'REMONT. 

make him desert: we therefore did the best we could for him. 
Leggings, moccasins, some articles of clothing, and a large green 
blanket, in addition to the blue and scarlet cloth, were lavished 
upon him, and to his great and evident contentment. He 
arrayed himself in all his colors ; and clad in green, blue, and 
scarlet, he made a gay-looking Indian ; and with his various 
presents, was probably riclier and better clothed than any of his 
tribe had ever been before. 

"I have already said that our provisions were very low; we 
had neither tallow nor grease of any kind remaining, and the 
want of salt became one of our greatest privations. The poor 
dog, which had been found in the Bear River Valley, and which 
had been a compagnon de voyage ever since, had now become 
fat, and the mess to which it belonged requested permission to 
kill it. Leave was granted. Spread out on the snow, the meat 
looked very good ; and it made a strengthening meal for the 
greater part of the camp. Lidians brought in two or three 

rabbits during the day, which were purchased from them. 
****** 

^'February 4. — I went ahead early with two or three men, 
each with a led horse, to break the road. We were obliged to 
abandon the hollow entirely, and work along the mountain side, 
which was very steep, and the snow covered with an icy crust. 
We cut a footing as we advanced, and trampled a road through 
for the animals; but occasionally one plunged outside the trail, 
and slid along the field to the bottom, a hundred yards below. 

" Towards a pass which the guide indicated here, we attempted, 
in the afternoon to force a road ; but after a laborious plunging 
through two or three hundred yards, our best horses gave out, 
entirely refusing to make any further effort; and, for the time, 
we were brought to a stand. The guide informed us that we 
were entering the deep snow, and here began the difficulties of 
the mountain ; and to him, and almost to all, our enterprise 
seemed hopeless. I returned a short distance back, to the break 
in the hollow, where I met Mr. Fitzpatrick. 



SECOND EXPLOEIN& EXPEDITION. 101 

" The camp had been all the clay occupied in endeavoring to 
ascend the hill, but only the best horses had succeeded ; the 
animals, generally, not having sufficient strength to bring them- 
selves up without the packs;, and all the line of road between 
this and the springs was strewed with camp stores and equipage, 
and horses floundering in snow. 

" To night we had no shelter, but we made a large fire around 
the trunk of one of the huge pines ; and covering the snow with 
small boughs on which we spread our blankets, soon made our- 
selves comfortable. The night was very bright and clear, though 
the thermometer was only at 10°. A strong wind, which 
sprang up at sundown, made it intensely cold, and this was one 
of the bitterest nights during the journey. 

"Two Indians joined our party here ; and othj of them, an old 
man, immediately began to harangue us, saying that ourselves 
and animals would perish in the snow ; and that if we would go 
back, he would show us another and a better way across the 
mountain. He spoke in a very loud voice, and there was a sin- 
gular repetition of phrases and arrangement of words, which 
rendered his speech striking, and not unmusical, 

" We had now begun to understand some words, and, with the 
aid of signs, easily comprehended the old man's simple idea. 
'Rock upon rock — rock upon rock — snow upon snow — snow 
upon snow,' said he; 'even if you get over the snow, you will 
not be able to get down from the mountains.' He* made us the 
sio-n of precipices, and showed us how the feet of the horses would 
slip, and throw them oif from the narrow trails which led along 
their sides. Our Chinook, who comprehended even more readily 
than ourselves,and believed our situation hopeless, covered his head 
with his blanket, and began to weep and lament. ' I wanted to 
see the whites,' said he ; ' I came away from my own people to see 
the whites, and I wouldn't care to die among them ; but here' — 
and he looked around in the cold night and gloomy forest, and 
drawing his blanket over his head, began again to lament. 

" Seated around the tree, the fire illuminating the rocks and the 



102 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FT^K'-n^TT. 

tall boles of the pines round about, and the old Indian harangu 
ing, we presented a group of very serious faces. 

" February 5. — The night had been too cold to sleep, and we 
■were up very early. Our guide was standing by the fire, with all 
his finery on : and feeing him shiver in tlie cold I threw on his 
shoulders one of my blankets. We missed him a few minutes 
afterwards, and never saw him again. He had deserted. His 
bad faith and treachery were in perfect keeping with the estimate 
of Indian character, which a long intercourse with this people 
bad gradually forced upon my mind. * * * 

" February 23. — This was our most difficult day ; we were 
forced off the ridges by the quantity of snow among the timber, 
and obliged to take to the mountain side, where occasionally 
rocks and a southern exposure afforded us a chance to scramble 
along. But these were steep, and slippery with snow and ice, 
and the tough evergreens of the mountains impeded our way^ 
iore our skins, and exhausted our patience. Some of us had the 
misfortune to wear moccasins with parjieche soles, so slippery that 
we could not keep our feet, and generally crawled across the 
enow beds. Axes and mauls were necessary here to-day, to 
make a road through the snow. Going ahead with Carson to 
reconnoitre the road, we reached in the afternoon the river 
which made the outlet of the lake. Carson sprang over, clear 
across a place where the stream was compressed among the 
rocks, but the parfieche sole of my moccasin glanced from the 
icy rock, and precipitated me into the river. It was some few 
seconds before I could recover myself in the current, and Carson, 
thinking me hurt, jumped in after me, and we both had an icy 
bath. We tried to search awhile for ray gun, which had been 
lost in the fall, but the cold drove us out ; and making a lai-ge 
fire on the bank, after we had partially dried ourselves, we went 
back to meet the camp. We afterwards found that the gun had 
been slung under the ice which lined the banks of the creek. 

*' February 24. — We rose at three in the morning, for an astro- 
nomical observation, and obtained for the place a latitude of 38° 



SECOND EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 103 

46' 58", longitude 120° Si' 20". The sky was clear and pure, 
with a sharp wind from the northeast, and the thermometer two 
degrees below the freezing point. * * * 

" Another horse was killed to-night, for food. * 

"My favorite horse, Proveau, had become very weak, and was 
scarcely able to bring himself to the top. I left Jacob to bring 
bim on, being obliged to i^ress forward with the party, as there 
was no grass in tlie forest. We grew very anxious as the day 
advanced and no grass appeared, for the lives of our animals de- 
pended on finding it to-night. They were in just such a condi- 
tion that grass and repose for the night enabled them to get on 
the next day. 

^'■February 29. — We lay shut up in the narrow ravine, and 
gave the animals a necessary day ; and men were sent back after 
the others. Derosier volunteered to bring up Proveau, to whom 
he knew I was greatly attached, as he had been my favorite 
hQrse on both expeditions. Carson and I climbed one of the 
nearest mountains ; the forest land still extended ahead, and the 
valley appeared as far as ever. The j)ack horse was found ne-ir 
the camp, but Derosier did not get in. * * 

" We began to be uneasy at Derosier's absence, fearing that 
he might liave been bewildered in the woods. Charles Towns, 
who had not yet recovered his mind, went to swim in the river, 
as if it were summer, and the stream placid, when it was a cold 
mountain torrent foaming among rocks. We were happy to 
see Derosier appear in the evening. He came in, and, sitting 
down by the fire, began to tell us where he had been. He 
imagined that he had been gone several days, and thought we 
were stiil at the camp where he had left us; and we were pained 
to see that his mind was deranged. It appeared that he had 
been lost in the mountain, and luinger and fatigue, joined to 
weakness of body, and fear of perishing in the mountains had 
crazed him. The times were severe when stout men lost their 
minds from extremity of suffering — when horses died — and 
when mules and horses, ready to die of starvation, were killed 
for food. Yet there was no murmuring or hesitation. 



104 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOnN C. FREitONT. 

" A short distance below our encampment, the river mountains 
terminated in precipices, and, after a fatiguing march of only 
a few miles we encamped on a bench where were springs and 
an abundance of the freshest grass. In the meantime Mr. I'reuss 
continued on down the river, and, unaware that we had encamped 
so early in the day, was lost. When night arrived, and he did 
not come in, we began to understand what had happened to 
him ; but it was too late to make any search. 

" March 3. — We followed Mr. Preuss's trail for a considerable 
distance along the river, until we reached a place Avhere he had 
descended to the stream below and encamped. Here we shouted 
and fired guns, but received no answer; and we concluded that 
be had pushed on down the stream. I determined to keep out 
from the river, along which it was nearly impracticable to travel 
with animals, until it should form a valley. * 

" We repeated our shouts for Mr. Preuss ; and this time we 
were gratitied with an answer. The voice grew rapidly nearer, 
ascending from the river; but when we expected to see hfm 
emerge, it ceased entirely. We had called up some straggling 
Indian — the first we had met. although for two days back we 
bad seen tracks — who, mistaking us for his fellows, had been 
only undeceived on getting close up. Ignorant of the character 
of the people, we had now an additional cause of uneasiness in 
regard to Mr. Preuss ; he had no arms with him, and we began 
to think his chance doubtful. 

" The mountains now were getting sensibly lower ; but still 
there is no valley on the river, which presents steep and rocky 
banks; but here, several miles from the river, tlie country is 
smooth and grassy ; the foi-est has no undei-gi-owth ; and in the 
open valleys or rivulets, or around spring heads, the low groves 
of live oak give the appearance of orchards in an old cultivated 
country. At one of tiiese orchard grounds, we encamped about 
noon to make an eflbrt for Mr. Preuss. One man took his way 
along a spur leading into the river, in hope to cross his trail ; 
and another took our own back. Both were volunteers ; and to 
the successful man was promised a pair of pistols — not as a 



SECOND EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 105 

reward, but as a token of gratitude for a service wliich would 
free us all from inucli anxiety. 

" We had among our few animals a horse which was so 
much reduced, that with travelling, even the good grass could 
not save him ; and, having nothing to eat, he was killed this 
afternoon. He was a good animal, and had made the journey 
round from Fort Hall. ****** 

" The absence of Mr. Preuss gave me great concern ; and, for 
a large reward, Derosier volunieered to go back on the trail. I 
directed him to search along the river, travelling upward for the 
space of a day and a half, at which time I expected he would 
meet Mr. Fitzpatrick, whom I requested to aid in the search ; at 
all events he was to go no further, but return to this camp, where 
a cache of provisions was made for him. 

" Continuing the next day down the river, we discovered three 
squaws in a little bottom, and surrounded them before they could 
make their escape. They had large conical baskets which they 
were engaged in filling with a small leafy plant, {erodium cicuta- 
rium) just now beginning to bloom, and covering the ground like 
a sward of grass. They did not make any lamentations, but 
appeared very much impressed with our appearance, sneaking 
to us only in a whisper, and offering us smaller baskets of the 
plant, which they signified to us was good to eat, making signs 
also that it was to he cooked by the fire. We drew out a little 
cold horse meat, and the squaws made signs to us that the men 
had gone out after deer, and that we could have some by wait- 
ing till they came in. We observed that the horses ate with 
great avidity the herb which they had been gathering ; and here 
also for the first time, we saw Indians eat the common grass — 
one of the squaws pulling several tufts, and eating it with appa- 
rent relish. Seeing our surprise, she pointed to the horses ; but 
we could not well understand what she meant, except, perhaps, 
that what was good for the one was good for the other. ^ 

******** I 

"Towards evening we heard a weak shout among the hills 

5* 



lOG LIFE AJ<iJ) SERVICES OF JOHN C. FUEMONT. 

behind, and had the pleasure to see Mr. Preuss descending 
towards the camp. Like ourselves, he had travelled to-day 
.twenty-five miles, but had seen nothing of Derosier. Knowing, 
on the day he was lost, that I was determined to keep the river 
as much as possible, he had not thought it necessary to follow 
the trail very closely, but walked on, right and left, certain to 
find it somewhere along the river, searching places to obtain 
good views of the country. Towards sunset he climbed down 
towards the river to look for the camp ; but, finding no trail, 
concluded that we were behind, and walked back until night 
came on, when, being very much fatigued, he collected drift 
wood and made a large fire among the rocks. The next day it 
became more serious, and he encamped again alone, thinking 
that we must have taken some other course. To go back would 
have been madness in his weak and starved condition, and 
onward towards the valley was his only hope, always in expec- 
tation of reaching it soon.. His principal means of subsistence 
was a few roots, which the hunters call sweet onions, having 
very little taste, but a good deal of nutriment, growing generally 
in rocky ground, and requiring a good deal of labor to get, as 
he had only a pocket knife. Searching for these, he found 
a nest of big ants, which he let run on his hand, and stripped 
them off in his mouth ; these had an agreeable acid taste. One 
of his greatest privations was the want of tobacco ; and a 
pleasant smoke at evening would have been a relief which 
only a voyageur could appreciate. He tried the dried leaves 
of the live oak, knowing that those of other oaks were some- 
times used as a substitute ; but these were too thick, and would 
not do. On the 4th he made seven or eight miles, walking 
slowly along the river, avoiding as much as possible to climb 
the hills. In little pools he caught some of the smallest kind of 
frogs, which he swallowed, not so much in the gratification of 
hunger, as in the hope of obtaining some strength. Scattered 
along the river were old fire-places, where the Indians had 
roasted muscles and acorns ; but though he searched diligently, 



SECOND EXPLOKING EXPEDITION. 107 

he did not tliere succeed in finding either. He had collected 
fire-wood for the night, when he heard at some distance from 
the river the barking of what he thought were two dogs, and 
walked in that direction as quickly as he was able, hoping to 
find there some Indian hut, but met only two wolves; and, in 
his disappoiiitraent, the gloom of the forest was doubled. 

" Travelling the next day feebly down the river, he found five 
or six Indians at the huts, of which we have spoken ; some were 
painting themselves black, and others roasting acorns. Being 
only one man, they did not run oft', but received him kindly, and 
gave him a welcome supply of roasted acorns. He gave them 
his pocket. knife in return, and stretched out his hand to one of 
the Indians, who did not appear to comprehend the motion, but 
jumped back, as if he thought he was about to lay hold of him. 
They seemed afraid of him, not certain as to what he was. 

" Travelling on he came to the place where we had found the 
squaws. Here he found our fire still burning, and the tracks of 
the horses. The sight gave him sudden hope and courage ; and, 
following as fast as he could, joined us at evening. 

" March 6. — We continued on our road, through the same 
surpassingly beautiful country, entirely unequalled for the pastu- 
rage of stock by anything we had ever seen. In a few hoiirs we 
reached a large fork, the northern branch of the river, and equal 
in size to that which we had descended. Together they formed 
a beautiful stream, 60 to 100 yards wide, which at first, ignorant 
of the nature of the country through which that river ran, we 
took to be the Sacramento. * * * * 

" We made an acorn meal at noon, and hurried on ; the valley 
being gay with flowers, and some of the banks being absolutely 
golden with the California poppy {eschscholtzia crocea^ Here 
the grass was smooth and green, and the groves very open ; the 
large oaks throwing a broad shade among sunny spots. Shortly 
afterwards we gave a shout at the appearance on a little blufi' of 
a neatly built adobe house with glass windows. We rode up, 
but, to our disappointment, found only Indians. There was no 



108 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JUUS U. FKKMONT. 

appearance of cultivatioa, and we could see no cattle, ai.d we 
supposed that the place had been abandoned. We now pressed 
on more eagerly than ever ; the river swept round in a large 
bend to the right ; the hill lowered down entirely ; and, gradually 
entering a broad valley, we came unexpectedly into a large 
Indian village, where the people looked clean, and wore cotton 
shirts and various other articles of dress. They immediately 
crowded around us, and we had the inexpressible delight to find 
one who spoke a little indifferent Spanish, but who at first con- 
founded us by saying there were no whites in the country; but 
just then a well-dressed Indian came up, and made his salutations 
in very well spoken Spanish. In answer to our inquiries, he 
informed us that we were upon the Hio de las Americanos (the 
river of the Americans), and that it joined the Sacramento River 
about ten miles below 1 Never did a name sound more sweetly* 
We felt ourselves among our countrymen ; for the name of 
American, in these parts, io applied to the citizens of the United 
States. To our eager inquiries he answered, 'lam a vaquero 
(cow herd) in t"he service of Captain Sutter, and the people of 
this rancheria work for him.' Our evident satisfaction made him 
communicaiive ; and he went on to say that Captain Sutter was 
a very rich man, and always glad to see his country people. 
We asked for his house. He answered that it was just over the 
hill before us; and offered, if we would wait a moment, to take 
his horse and conduct us to it. We readily accepted his civil 
offer. In a short distance we came in sight of the fort ; and, 
passing on the way the house of a settler on the opposite side 
(a Mr. Sinclair), we forded the river ; and in a few miles were 
met a short distance from the fort by Captain Sutter himself. 
He gave us a most frani- and cordial reception — conducted us 
immediately to his residen. e — and under his hospitable roof we 
had a night of rest, enjoyment and refreshment, which none but 
ouTselves could appreciate. J5ut the party left in the mountains 
with Mr. Fitzpatrick were to be attended to ; and the next morn- 
ing, supplied with fresh horses and provisions, I hurried off to 



SECOND EXPLOEESra EXPEDITION. 109 

meet them. On the second day we met, a few miles below the 
forks of the Rio de los Americanos : and a more forlorn and 
pitiable sight than they presented, eannot well be imagined* 
They were all on foot — each man, weak and emaciated, lead 
ing a horse or mule as weak and emaciated as themselves. They 
had experienced great difficulty in descending the mountains, 
made slippery by rains and molting snows, and many horses fell 
over precipices, and were killed ; and with some were lost the 
2Mcks they carried. Among these was a mule with the plants, 
which we had collected since leaving Fort Hall, along a line of 
2,000 miles travel. Out of si.xty-seven horses and mules with 
which we commenced crossing the Sierra, only thirty-three 
reached the valley of the Sacramento, and they only in a condi- 
tion to be led along. 

" Mr. Fitzpatrick and his party, travelling more slowly, had 
been able to make some little exertion at hunting, and had killed 
a few deer. The scanty supply was a great relief to them ; for 
several had been made sick by the strange and unwholesome 
food which the preservation of life had compelled them to use. 
We stopped and encamped as soon as we met ; and a repast of 
good beef, excellent bread, and delicious salmon, which I had 
brought along, were the first relief from the sutierings of the 
Sierra, and their first introduction to the luxuries of the Sacra- 
mento. It required all our philosophy and forbearance to pre- 
vent plenty from becoming as hurtful to us now, as scarcity had 
been before." 



110 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C, FKEMONT. 



CHAPTER YI. 

SECOND EXPEDITION CONCLUDED — ENCAMPS AMONG THE 
DIGGER INDIANS THEIR HABITS AND CHARACTER ^MAS- 
SACRE OF TABEATJ RECOVERY OF HIS REMAINS RETURN 

TO UTAH LAKE ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS OF THE EXPE- 
DITION BY ITS COMi^IANDER. 

After refreshing himself and men, and procuring such 
a stock of provisions as they required, Coh Fremont 
resumed his journey on the 24:th of March. He pro- 
posed to avail himself of the pass at the head of the 
San Joaquin River, about 500 miles south of Sutter's 
place, and thence to cross the rim of the Great Basin, 
BO as to reach the head of the Arkansas river on the 
opposite side of the mountains. In the course of this 
journey, he had the misfortune to lose one of his best 
men among the Digger Indians, on the Rio de los 
Angeles, under circumstances peculiarly distressing. 
His narrative first introduced this degraded race to the 
acquaintance of civilized men, which is a sufficient 
excuse for presenting it here again at length. 

"Jfay 5. — On account of our animals, it was necessary to 
remain to-day at this place, Indians crowded numerously 
around us in the morning ; and we were obliged to keep arms 
in hand all day, to keep them out of the camp. They began to 
surround the horses, which, for the convenience of grass, we were 



SECOND EXrLOEING EXPEDITION. Ill 

guarding a little above, on the river. These were immediately 
driven in, and kept close to the camp. 

" In the darkness of tlie night we had made a very bad 
encampment, our fires being commanded by a rocky bluff 
within fifty yards; but, notwithstanding, we had the river and 
small thickets of willows on the other side. Several times during 
the day the camp was insulted by the Indians ; but, peace being 
our object, I kept simply on the defensive. Some of the Indians 
were on the bottoms, and others haranguing us from the bluffs ; 
and they were scattered in every direction over the hills. Their 
language being probably a dialect of the Utah, with the aid of 
signs some of our people could comprehend them very well. 
They were the same people who had murdered the Mexicans ; 
and towards us their disposition was evidently hostile, nor were 
we well d'sposed towards them. They were barefooted, and 
nearly naked: their hair gathered up into a knot behind ; and 
with his bow, each man carried a quiver with thirty or forty 
arrows partially drawn out. Besides these, each held in his 
hand two or three arrows for instant service. Their arrows are 
barbed with a very clear translucent stone, a species of opal, 
nearly as hard as the diamond ; and, shot from the long bow, 
are almost as effective as a gunshot. In these Indians, I was 
forcibly struck by an expression of countenance resembling that 
in a beast of prey ; and all their actions are those of wild 
animals. Joined to the restless motion of the eye, there is a 
want of mind — an absence of thought — and an action wholly by 
impulse, strongly expressed, and which constantly recalls the 
similarity. 

" A man who appeared to be a chief, with two or three others, 
forced himself into camp, bringing with him his arms, in spite 
of my orders to the contrary. When shown our weapons, he 
bored his ear with his fingers, and said he could not hear. 
*Why,' said he, 'there are none of you.' Counting the people 
around the camp, and including in the number a mule which was 
being shod, he made out 22. ' So many,' said he, showing the 



112 LIFE A^^D SERVIUK8 OF JOHN C. FliEMONT. 

lainiber, 'and we — we are a great many ;' and lie pointed to the 
hills and mountains round about. ' If you have your arms,' said 
he, twanging his bow, 'we have these.' 1 had some difliculty in 
restraining the people, particularly Carson, who felt an insult of 
this kind as much as if it had been given by a more responsible 
beiTig. ' Don't say that, old man,' said he ; ' don't say that — your 
life's in danger ' — speaking in good English ; and probably the 
old man was nearer to his end than he will be before he meets 
it. 

" Several animals had been necessarily left behind near the 
camp last night ; and early in the morning, before the Indians 
made their appearance, several men were sent to bring them in. 
When 1 was beginning to be uneasy at their absence, they 
returned with information that they had been driven off from the 
trail by Indians ; and, having followed the tracks in a short dis- 
tance, they found the animals ciit up and spread out u^ on bushes. 
In the evening I gave a fatigued horse to some of the Indians 
for a feast ; and the village vvhicTi carried him off refused to share 
with the others, who made loud complaints from the rocks of the 
partial distribution. Many of these Indians had long sticks, 
hooked at the end, which they used in hauling out lizards, and 
other small animals, from their holes. During the day they 
occasionally roasted and ate lizards at our fires. These belong to 
the people who are generally known under the name oi Diggers; 
and to these I have more particularly had reference when occasion- 
ally speaking of a people whose sole occupation is to procure 
food sufficient to support existence. The formation here consists of 
fine yellow sandstone, alternating with a coarse conglomerate, in 
which the stones are from the size of ordinary gri^el to six or 
eight inches in diameter. This is the formation which renders 
the surface of the country so rocky, and gives us now a road 
alternately of loose heavy sands and rolled stones, which cripple 
the animals in a most extraordinary manner. 

" On the following morning we left the Rio de los Angeles^ 
and continued our way through the same desolate and revolting 



SECOND EXPLOKING EXPEDITION. 113 

country, where lizards were the only animal, and the tracks of 
the lizard eaters the principal sign of human beings. After 
twenty miles' march through a road' of hills and heavy sands, we 
reached the most dreary river I have ever seen — a deep rapid 
stream, almost a torrent, passing swiftly by, and roaring against 
obstructions. The banks were wooded with willow, acacia, and 
a frequent plant of the country already mentioned [Garrya ellip- 
tica), growing in thickets, resembling willow, and bearing a small 
pink flower. Crossing it, we encamped on the left bank, where 
we found a very little grass. Our three remaining steers, being 
entirely given out, were killed here. By the boiling point, the 
elevation of the river here is 4,060 feet ; and latitude, by obser- 
vation, 36° 41' 33". The stream was running towards the south- 
west, and appeared to come from a snowy mountain in the 
north. It proved to be the Mio Virgen — a tributary to the 
Colorado. Indians appeared in bands upon the hills, but did not 
come into camp. For several days we continued our journey up 
the river, the bottoms of which were thickly overgrown with, 
various kinds of brush ; and the sandy soil was actually covered 
with the tracks of Diggers, who followed us stealthily, like a band 
of wolves ; and we had no opportunity to leave behind, even for 
a few hours, the tired animals, in order that they might be 
brought into camp after a little repose, a horse or mule, left 
behind, was taken off in a moment. On the evening of the 8th, 
having travelled 28 miles up the river from our first encampment 
on it, we encamped at a little grass plat, where a spring of cool 
water issued from the blufl:'. On the opposite side was a grove 
of cottonwoods at the mouth of a fork, which here enters the 
river. Oq either side the valley is bounded by ranges of moun- 
tains, everywhere high, rocky and broken. The caravan road 
was lost and scattered in the sandy country, and we had been 
following an Indian trail up the river. The hunters the next 
day were sent out to reconnoitre, and in the meantime we moved 
about a mile farther up, where we found a good little patch of 
grass. There being only sufiicient grass for the night, the horses 



114 LIFE AND 8KKVICES OF JOUN C. FREMONT. 

were sent with a strong guard in charge of Tabeau to a neigh- 
boring hollow, where they might pasture during the day ; and, 
to be ready iif case the Indians should make any attempt on the 
animals, several of the best horses were picketed at the camp. 
In a few hours the hunters returned, having found a convenient 
ford in the river, and discovered the Spanish trail on the other 
side. 

"'I had been engaged in arranging plants; and, fatigued with 
the heat of the day, I fell asleep in the afternoon, and did not 
awake until sundown. Presently Carson came to me, and 
reported that Tabeau, who early in the day had left his post, 
and, without my knowledge, rode back to the camp we had left,- 
in search of a lame mule, had not returned. While we were 
speaking, a smoke rose suddenly from the cottonwood grove 
below, which plainly told us what had befallen him ; it was 
raised to inform the surrounding Indians that a blow had been 
struck, and to tell them to be on their guard. Carson with 
several men well mounted, was instantly sent down the river, 
but returned in the night without tidings of the missing man. 
They went to the camp we had left, but neither he nor the mule 
was there. Searching down the river, they found the tracks of 
a mule, evidently driven along by Indians, whose tracks were on 
each side of those made by the animal. After going several 
miles, they came to the mule itself, standing in some bushes, 
mortally wounded in the side by an arrow, and left to die, that 
it might be afterwards butchered for food. They also found, in 
another place, as they were hunting about on the ground for 
Tabeau's tracks, something that looked like a puddle of blood, 
but which the darkness prevented them from verifying. With 
these details they returned to our camp, and their report sad- 
dened all our hearts, 

'■'■May 10. — This morning as soon as there was light enough 
to follow tracks, I set out myself, with Mr. Fitzpatrick and several 
men, in search of Tabeau. We went to the spot where the 
appearance of puddled blood had been seen ; and this, we saw 



SECOND EXPLOPJXG EXPEDITION. 115 

at once, had been the place where he fell and died. Blood upon 
the leaves, and beaten down bushes, showed that he had got his 
■wound about twenty paces from where he fell, and that he had 
struggled for his life. lie had probably been shot through the 
lungs with an ari'ow. From the place where he lay and bled, 
it could be seen that he had been dragged to the river bank 
and thrown into it. No vestige of what had belonged to him 
could be found, except a fragment of his horse equipment. 
Horse, gun, clothes — all became the prey of these Arabs of the 
New World". 

"Tabeau had been one of our best men, and his unhappy 
death spread a gloom over our party. Men, who have gone 
through such dangers and sufferings as we had seen, become like 
bi'olhers, and feel each other's loss. To defend and avenge each 
other, is the deep feeling of all. We wished to avenge his 
death ; but the condition of our horses, languishing for grass and 
repose, forbade an expedition into unknown mountains. We 
knew the tribe who had done the mischief — the same which 
had been insulting our camp. They knew what they deserved, 
and had the discretion to show themselves to us no more. The 
day before, they infested our camp; now, not one appeared ; nor 
did we ever afterwards see but one who even belonged to the 
same tribe, and be at a distance."- 

On the 23d of May, Colonel Fremont reached Utah 
Lake. Having completed the immense circuit of 
twelve degrees diameter North and South, and ten 
degrees East and West, he found himself at the end of 
eight months on the same sheet of water which he had 
left the September previous, the Utah being the 
Soutliern limb of the Great Salt Lake of which remark- 
able sheet of water he had now seen and been able to 
fix the points both of its Northern and Southern extrem- 
ities. During the eight preceding months he had 



110 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FKEMONT. 

travelled 3500 miles, and had a view of Oregon and of 
Nortli California from the Rocky Mountains to the 
Pacific Ocean, and of the two principal streams which 
form bays or harbors on the coast of that sea. During 
the entire eight months he was never out of the sight of 
snow, and the point where they crossed the Sierra 
Nevada was was near 2,000 feet higher than the South 
Pass of the Rocky Mountains. 

With one single quotation more to illustrate Mr. 
Fremont's faculty of generalization, we close our account 
of this expedition. 

" Having completed this circuit, and being now about to turn 
the back upon the Pacific slope of our continent, and to recross 
the Rocky Mountains, it is natural to look back upon our foot- 
steps, and take some brief view of the leading features and 
general structure of the country we had traversed. These are 
peculiar and striking, and ditier essentially from the Atlantic side 
of our country. The mountains all are higher, more numerous, 
and more distinctly defined in their ranges and directions ; and, 
what is so contrary to the natural order of such formations, one 
of these ranges, which is near the coast (the Sierra Nevada 
and the Coast Range), presents higher elevations and peaks than 
any which are to be found in the Rocky Mountains themselves. 
In our eight months' circuit, we were never out of sight of snow • 
and the Sierra Nevada, where we crossed it, was near 2,000 feet 
higher than the South Pass in the Rocky Mountains. In height, 
these mountains greatly exceed those of the Atlantic side, con- 
stantly presenting peaks which enter the region oi' eternal snow ; 
and some of them volcanic, and in a frequent state of activity. 
They are seen at great distances, and guide the traveller in his 
courses. 

"The course and elevation of these ranges give direction to the 
rivers and character to the coast. No great river does, or can 



SECOND EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 117 

take its rise below the Cascade and Sierra Nevada range ; the 
distance to the sea is too short to admit of it. The rivers of the 
San Francisco bay, which are the largest after the Columbia, 
are local to that bay, and lateral to the coast, having their 
sources about on a line with the Dalles of the Columbia, and 
running each in a valley of its own, between Coast range and 
the Cascade and Sierra Nevada range. The Columbia is the 
only river which traverses the whole breadth of the country, 
breaking through all the ranges, and entering the sea. Draw- 
in(T its waters from a section of ten degrees of latitude in the 
Rocky Mountains, which are collected into one stream by three 
main foiks (Lewis's, Clark's, and the North Fork) near the 
centre of the Oregon valley, this great river thence proceeds by 
a single channel to the sea, while its three forks lead each to a 
pass in the mountains, which opens the way into the interior of 
the continent. This fact, in relation to the rivers of this region, 
gives an immense value to the Columbia. Its mouth is the 
only inlet and outlet to and from the sea ; its three forks lead to 
the passes in the mountains; it is, therefore, the only line of 
communication between the Pacific and the interior of North 
America; and all operations of war or commerce, of national or 
social intercourse, must be conducted upon it. This gives it a 
value beyond estimauon, and would involve irreparable injury if 
lost. In this unity and concentration of its waters, the Pacific 
side of our continent dilfers entirely from the Atlantic side, 
where the waters of the Alleghany Mountains are dispersed into 
many rivers, having their different entrances into the sea, and. 
opening many lines of communication with, the interior. 

"The Pacific coast is equally difierent from that of the 
Atlantic. The coast of the Atlantic is low and open, indented 
with numerous bays, sounds, and river estuaries, accessible every- 
where, and opening by many channels into the heart of the 
country. The Pacific coast, on the contrary, is high and 
cou)pact, with few bays, and but one that opens into the heart 
of the country. The immediate coast is what the seamen call 



lis LIFE AND SEltVICES OIT JOUN C. FREMONT. 

iron bound. A little within, it is skirted by two successive 
ranges of mountains, standing as i-amparts between the sea and 
the interior country ; and to get through which, there is but one 
gate, and that narrow and easily defended. This structure of 
the coast, backed by these two ranges of mountains, with its 
concentration and unity of waters, gives to the country an 
mimense military strength, and will probably render Oregon the 
most impregnable country in the world. 

" Diflering so much from the Atlantic side of our continent, 
in coast, mountains, and rivers, the Pacific side differs from it in 
another most rare and singular feature — that of the Great 
interior Basin, of which I have so often spoken, and the whole 
form and character of which I was so anxious to ascertain. Its 
existence is vouched for by such of the American traders and 
hunters as have some knowledge of that region ; the structure 
of the Sierra Nevada range of mountains requires it to be there ; 
and my own observations confirm it. Mr. Joseph Walker, who is 
so well acquainted in those parts, informed me that, from the Great 
Salt Lake west, there was a succession of lakes and rivers which 
have no outlet to the sea, nor any connection with the Colum- 
bia, or with the Colorado of the Gulf of California. He 
described some of these lakes as being large, with numerous 
streams, and even considerable rivers, falling into them. In fact, 
all concur in the general report of these interior rivers and 
lakes ; and, for want of imderstanding the force and power of 
evaporation, which so soon establishes an equilibrium between 
the loss and supply of waters, the fable of whirlpools and subter- 
raneous outlets has gained belief, as the only imaginable way 
of carrying off the waters which have no visible discharge. The 
structure of the country would require this formation of interior 
lakes ; for the waters which would collect between the Rocky 
Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, not being able to cross this 
formidable barrier, nor to get to the Columbia or the Colorado, 
must naturally collect into reservoirs, each of which would have 
its little system of streams and rivers to supply it. This would 



SECOKD EXl'LOKING EXPKDITION. 119 

be tte natural effect; and what I saw went to confirm it. The 
Great Salt Lake is a formation of this kind, and quite a large 
one ; and having many streams, and one considerable river, four 
or five hundred miles long, falling into it. This lake and river 
T saw and examined myself; and also saw the Wah-satch and 
Bear River mountains which enclose the waters of the lake on 
the east, and constitute, in that quarter, the rim of the Gi'eat 
Basin. Afterwards, along the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada, 
where we travelled for forty-two days, I saw the line of lakes 
and rivers which lie at the foot of that Sierra ; and which Sierra 
is the western rim of the Basin. In going down Lewis's Fork 
and the main Columbia, I crossed only inferior streams coming 
in from the left, such as could draw their water from a short 
distance only ; and I often saw the mountains at their heads, 
white with snow ; which, all accounts said, divided the waters 
of the desert from tliose of the Columbia, and which could be 
no otlier than the range of mountains which form the rim of the 
Basin on its northern side. And in returning from California 
along the Spanish trail, as far as the head of tbe Santa Clara 
Fork of the Rio Virgen, I crossed only small streams making 
their way south to the Colorado, or lost in sand — as the 
Mo-hah-ve ; while to the left, lofty mountains, their summits 
white with snow, were often visible, and which must have 
turned water to the north as well as to the south, and thus 
constituted, on this part, the southern rim of the Basin. At the 
head of the Santa Clara Fork, and in the Vegas de Santa Clara, 
we crossed the ridge which parted the two systems of waters. 
"We entered the Basin at that point, and have travelled in it 
ever since, having its southeastern rim (the Wah-satch Moun- 
tain) on the right, and crossing the streams which flow down 
into it. The existence of the Basin is, therefore, an established 
fact in my mind ; its extent and contents are yet to be better 
ascertained. It cannot be less than four or five hundred miles 
each way, and must lie principally in the Alta Califoraia ; the 
deraarkation latitude of 42° probably cutting a segment from 



120 LIFE AND 6ERYICKS OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

the north part of the rim. Of its interior, but little is knovm. 
It is CfiUed a desert, and, from what I saw of it, sterility may be 
its prominent characteristic; but where there is so. much wateri 
there must be some oases. The great rivei', and the great lake, 
reported, may not be equal to the report; but where there is so 
much snow, there must be streams ; and where there is no 
outlet, there must be lakes to hold the accumulated waters, or 
sands to swallow them up. In this eastern part of the Basin, 
containing Sevier, Uttvh, and the Great Salt lakes, and the rivers 
and creeks falling into them, we know there is good soil and 
good grasS; adapted to civilized settlements. In the western 
}):irt, on Salmon Trout River, and some other streams, the same 
remark may be made. 

" The contents of this Great Basin are yet to be examined. 
That it is peopled, we know ; but miserably and sparsely. 
From all that I heard and saw, I should say that humanity here 
appeared in its lowest form, and in its most elementary state. 
1 >ispersed in single families; without fire-arms; eating seeds 
and insects; digging roots (and hence their name) — such is 
the condition of the greater part. Others are a degree higher, 
and live in communities upon some lake or river that supplies 
fish, and from whence they repulse the miserable Digger. The 
rabbit is the largest animal known in this desert ; its flesh 
aflbrds a little meat ; and their bag-like covering is made of its 
skins. The wild sage is their only wood, and here it is of 
extraordinary size — sometimes a foot in diameter, and six or 
eight feet high. It serves for fuel, for building material, for 
shelter for the rabbits, and for some sort of covering for the feet 
and legs in cold weather. Such are the accounts of the 
inhabitants and productions of the Great Basin; and which, 
though imperfect, must have some foundation, and excite our 
desire to know the whole. 

"The whole idea of such a desert, and such a people, is a 
novelty in our country, and excites Asiatic, not American ideas* 
Interior basins, with their own systems of lakes and rivers, 



SECOND EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 121 

and often sterile, are common enough in Asia ; people still in 
the elementary state of families, living in deserts, with no other 
occupation than the mere animal search for food, may still be 
seen in that ancient quarter of the globe ; but in America such 
thing-s are new and strange, unknown and unsuspected, and dis- 
credited when related. But I flatter myself that what is 
discovered, though not enough to satisfy curiosity, is sufficient 
to excite it, and that subsequent explorations will complete what 
has been commenced. 

"This account of the Great Basin, it will be remembered, 
belongs to the Alta California, and has no application to 
Oregon, whose capabilities may justify a separate remark. 
Referring to my journal for particular descriptions, and for 
sectional boundaries between good and bad districts, I can only 
say, in general and comparative terms, that, in that branch of 
agriculture which implies the cultivation of grains and staple 
crops, it would be inferior to the Atlantic States, though many 
parts are superior for wheat ; while in the rearing of flocks and 
herds it would, claim a high place. Its grazing capabilities are 
great ; and even in the indigenous grass now there, an element 
of individual and national wealth may be found. In fact, the 
valuable grasses begin within one hundred and fifty miles of the 
Missouri frontier, and extend to the Pacific ocean. East of the 
Rocky mountains, it is the short curly grass, on which the 
buftalo delight to feed (whence its name of bufialo), and which 
is still good when dry and apparently dead. West of those 
mountains it is a larger growth, in clusters, and hence called 
bunch grass, and which has a second or fall growth. Plains and 
mountains both exhibit them ; and I have seen good pasturage 
at an elevation of ten thousand feet. In this spontaneous pro- 
duct the trading or travelling caravans can find subsistence for 
their animals ; and in military operations any number of 
cavalry may be moved, and any nimiber of cattle may be 
driven ; and thus men and horses be supported on long expedi- 
tions, and even in winter, in the sheltered situations. 

6 



1-2 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FBEMONT. 

"Commercially, the value of the Oregon ccnn try must be 
great, washed as it is by the north Pacific ocean — fronting 
Asia — producing many of the elements of commerce — mild 
and healthy in its climate — and becoming, as it naturallv 
■will, a thoroughfare for the East India and China trade." 

Tlie soundness of these inductions have all been since 
abundantly verified. 

Immediately upon his return from this expedition, 
Fremont, who at that time held the rank of second 
lieutenant of topographical engineers, received the 
double brevet of captain in the army, upon the recom- 
mendation of General Scott, who made the colonel's 
services in the topographical corps the subject of a spe- 
cial report. This report, which is now on file in the 
War Department at Washington, consists of two pai'ts : 
the first an argument that a double brevet, under the 
law, might be granted ; and secondly, that, in con- 
sideration of " Fremont's " gallant and highly merito- 
rious services " in the expeditions commanded by him- 
self, the first to the Hocky Mountains, which terminated 
October 17, 1842, and the second beyond those moun- 
tains, which terminated July 31, 1843,'' they ought to 
be granted. This tribute from General Scott was the 
more flattering from the fact that, at that time, he had 
no personal acquaintance with Fremont, nor were his 
relations with Colonel Benton at all intimate. It was a 
spontaneous and ofiicer-like acknowledgement of talents 
and services which had already conferred additional dis- 
tinction upon their common profession. 



I 



THIBD EXPLOKINQ EXPEDITION. 123 



CHAPTEE VII. 

THIRD EXPEDITION FESST VISIT TO MAEIPOSAS STKANGB 

PHASES OF INDIAN LIFE FIGHT WITH HORSE-THIEF INDI- 
ANS ^LOSES ALL HIS CATTLE IN THE SNOW HOSTILE MES- 
SAGE FROM GOVERNOR CASTRO — HOISTS THI'] AMERICAN 

FLAG IN CALIFORNIA COL. BENTON's ACCOUNT OF THE 

CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA KIT CARSON's ACCOUNT OF A 

NIGHT ATTACK BY A PARTY OF TLAMATH INDIANS — • 

PARDON OF PICO SECRETARY MARCy's ACCOUNT OF THE 

CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA ESTABLISHES THE INDEPEND- 
ENCE OF CALIFORNIA. 

In preparing his reports for the press the remainder 
of 1844 was occupied. In the spring of the following 
year, Fremont set out on a third expedition, which cora- 
preliended in its design an exploration of the interior 
region known as the Great Basin, and the maritime 
country of Oregon and California. But the leading idea 
of the journey was an examination of the overland coni- 
mnnication with the ocean, and to this the others, tlicnigh 
of great and special interest, were incidental and suboi 
dinate. 

To this special object his general plan of surveys had 
been gradually directed, and his visit to California in 
the preceding winter had given to it jioint and increased 



124 LIFE AND SP:RVICES ok JOHN C. FREMONT. 

attraction. Tlic beanty of tlio country, and its grand 
commercial advantages, had indelibly ini];)ressed them- 
selves on his mind, and he had, in consequence, decided 
to make it a future home for himself and his family. 

After some months spent in examining the head- 
waters of the great, rivers which flow to either ocean, 
the party descended at the beginning of winter to the 
Great Salt Lake, and in October encamped on its south- 
western shore, in view of that undescribed country 
which at that time had not been penetrated, and which 
vague and contradictory reports of Indians, represented 
as a desert without grass or water. 

Their previous visit to the lake had given it a 
somewhat familiar aspect, and on leaving it they felt as 
if about to commence their journey anew. Its eastern 
shore was frequented by large bands of Indians, but 
here they had dwindled down to a single family, which 
was gleaning from some hidden source enough to sup- 
port life, and drinking the salt water of a little stream 
neai- by, no fresh water being at hand. This offered 
scanty encouragement as to what they might expect on 
the desert beyond. 

At its threshold and immediately before them was a 
naked plain of smooth clay surface, mostly devoid 
of vegetation — the hazy weather of the summer hung 
over it, and in the distance rose scattered, low, 
black and dry-looking mountains. At what appeared 
to be fifty miles or more, a higher peak held out some 
promise of wood and water, and towards this it was 
resolved to direct their course. 

Four men, with a pack animal loaded with water for 
two days, and accompanied by a naked Indian — who 
volunteered for a reward to be their guide to a spot 



I 



THIRD EXPLORING KXPEDITION. 125 

"where lie said there was gi'ass and fine springs — were 
sent forward to explore in advance for a foothold, and 
verify the existence of water before the whole party 
should be launched into the desert. Their way led 
toward the high peak of the mountain, on which they 
were to make a smoke signal in the event of finding 
water. About sunset of the second day, no signal hav- 
ing been seen, Fremont became uneasy at the absence 
of his men, and set out with the whole party upon 
their trail, travelling raj)idly all the night. Towards 
morning one of the scouts, Archambault, was met 
returning. 

Tie Indian had been found to know less than them- 
selvefc, and had been sent back, but the men had pushed 
on to the mountains, where they found a running 
stream, with wood and sufficient grass. The whole 
party now lay down to rest, and the next day, after a 
hai'd march, reached the stream. The distance across 
the plain was nearly seventy miles, and they called the 
mountain which had guided them Pilot Peak. This 
was their first day's march and their first camp in the 
desert. 

A few days afterwards the expedition was divided 
into two parties — the larger one under the guidance of 
Walker, a well-known mountaineer and experienced 
traveller, going around to the foot of the Sierra Nevada 
by a circuitous route which he had previously travelled, 
and B>eniont, with ten men, Delawares and whites, 
penetrating directly through the heart of the desert. 

They had been travelling a week, during which they 
had seen human beings only on one occasion, and at 
the close af a hard day's journey, in which they had 
failed to find water, had turned into a mountain where 



126 LIFE AND 8KRVICE8 OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

some appearances of timber and grass gave promising 
indications of a good camp. 

They followed up a dry stream bed, until tliey were 
nearly tAvo tliousand feet above the plain and towards 
the summit of the mountain, where they Ibund a spring 
sufficiently large for the camp wants, with grass abun- 
dant, and pine wood and cedar to keep up the night 
fires ; for it was November, and the newly-fallen snow 
already marked out the higher ridges of the mountains. 

They were surprised to see tracks of a naked foot 
near the spring, which had been recently cleaned out, 
but there were no other indications of human life. 
Supper was over, and they were about the fire, when 
Carson who was lying on his back with his pipe n his 
mouth, his hands under his head and his feet to the fire, 
suddenly exclaimed, half rising and pointing to the 
other side of the fire — " Good God ! look there !" In 
the blaze of the fire, peering over her skinny, crooked 
hands, which shaded her eyes from the glare, so as to 
enable her to see the men, was standing an old woman, 
apparently eighty years of age, nearly naked, li«r grizzly- 
hair hanging down over her face and shoulders. She 
had evidently thought it a camp of her people, and 
in the grateful warmth of the fire had already begun to 
talk and gesticulate, when her open mouth was sud- 
denly paralysed and her face blanched with fright, as 
she saw the faces of the whites. 

With a natural instinct she turned to escape, but the 
men had gathered round her, and she made them com- 
prehend that she had been brought there and left by 
her people — that she was very old and could gather no 
more seeds, and was no longer good for anything, and 
that she was going to die when the snows got deep. 



THIRD EXPLOEING EXPEDITION. 127 

She was greatly alarmed and eager to get away, and 
as the hunters had been successful that day, she was 
plentifully supplied with the meat of mountain sheep, 
which she ran off with as soon as it was given to her. 
She had" not gone twenty steps before it was remem- 
bered that she had no fire and probably no means of 
making one ; and one of the men, seizing a brand, 
ran after her, but to no purpose — she had dodged down 
into the brush and in the darkness could not be found. 

Some days afterwards, travelling along the foot of a 
mountain, the arid country covered with dwarf shrubs, 
a light volume of smoke was seen rising from a ravine. 
Kiding cautiously up, they discovered a single Indian 
on the border of a small creek. He was standing before 
a little fire, naked as he was born, apparentlythinking, 
and looking at a small earthen pot w-hich was simmering 
over the fire, filled with the common ground-squirrel of 
the country. Another bunch of squirrels lay near it, 
and close by w^ere his bow and arrows. He was a well- 
made, good-looking young man, about twenty -five years 
of age. Although so taken by surprise that he made no 
attempt to escape, and evidently greatly alarmed, he 
received his visitors with forced gaiet}^ and off'ered tliem 
■part of his pot au -feu and his bunch of squii-rels. He 
w^as kindly treated and some little presents made him, 
and the party continued their way. 

His bow was handsomely made, and the arrows, of 
which there were about forty in his quiver, wei-e neatly 
feathered, and headed with obsidian, worked into spear- 
shape by patient labor. 

After they had separated, Fremont found that his 
Delaw^ares had taken a fancy to the Indian's bow and 
arrows, and carried them off. They carried them will- 



128 LIFK AND SKRVICKS OF JOHN C. FRKAfONT. 

inglj l)jick, when they were reminded tliat tlieyliad ex- 
posed the ])Oor fellow to almost certain starvation by 
depriving him, in llie beginning of winter, of liis only 
means of subsistence, whieli it wonld require months to 
rej^lace. 

There were no tracks around, to indicate the presence 
of other Indians in the neighborhood, nor was it probable 
there were any within twenty or thirty miles. The 
difficulty of subsistence reduces this peojDle nearly to 
the condition of animals, and scatters them, during the 
greater part of the year, sometimes singly, sometimes 
in families, until the spring or (in certain places) the 
fishino; season bring-s them too-ether affain. 

o otto 

One day the party had reached one of the lakes lying 
along the foot of the Sierra Nevada, wliich was their 
appointed rendezvous wi:h their friends, and where, at 
this season, the scattered Indians of the neighborhood 
were gathering, to fish. Turning a point on ihe lake 
shore, a party of Indians, some twelve or fourteen in 
number, came abruptly in view\ They were advancing 
along in Indian file, one following the other, their heads 
bent forward, and eyes fixed on the ground. As the 
two parties met, the Indians did not turn their heads or 
raise their eyes from the ground, but passed silently 
along. The whites, habituated to the chances of savage 
life, and always uncertain whether they should find 
friends or foes in those they met, fell readily into their 
humor, and they too passed on their way without word 
or halt. 

It was a strange meeting : two parties of such different 
races and different countries, coming abruptly upon each 
other, witli every occasion to excite curiosity and pro- 
voke question, pass in a desert without a word of inquiry 



THIKD EXPLORING EXPEDITION". 129 

or greeting — without any show of friendship or attempt 
at hostihty. 

Shortly after this rencontre, the divided parties met 
at their appointed place, where a river, to which they 
gave "Walker's name, discharges into the lake. 

There was a place on the lake where beds of rushes 
made good pasturage for their half-starved animals, and 
here the two parties remained some days together. 

It was now mid-winter, they were out of provisions — 
and there was no game. The heavy snows might be 
daily expected to block up the passes in the great Sierra, 
if. they 'had not already fallen, and with all their 
experience it was considered too hazardous to attempt 
the passage with the materiel of a whole party ; it was 
arranged therefore that Walker should continue with the 
main party southward along the Sierra, and enter the 
valley of the San Joaquin by some one of the low passes 
at its liead, where there is rarely or never snow. Fre- 
mont undertook, with a few men, to cross directly west- 
wai'd over the Sierra Nevada to Sutter's Fort, with the 
view of obtaining there the necessary supplies of horses 
and beef cattle with which to rejoin his party. 

He encountered the obstacles which these formid- 
able mountains always present in winter, but had the 
good fortune to get through the passes before they were 
choked by the snows, and reached Sutter's Fort in 
safety. 

The necessary supplies were obtained without diffi- 
culty, and in the middlg of December he proceeded 
with his party — now numbering in all about sixteen — • 
to meet his main camp at the appointed place of rendez- 
vous, travelling in a southeasterly direction up the valley 
of the San Joaquin. 

6* 



130 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FRTCMONT. 

After some days' travel, leaving the Mercedes river, 
thej had entered among the foot hills of the mountains, 
and were journeying through a beautiful country of 
undulating upland, openly timbered with oaks, princi- 
pally evergreen, and watered with small streams. In 
the beauty and varied character of its scenery, this tract 
is one of the most remarkable in Southern California. 

Travelling along, they came suddenly upon broad and 
deeply-worn trails, which had been freshly travelled by 
large bands of horses, ajDparently coming from the set- 
tlements on the coast. These and other indications 
warned them that they were approaching villages of the 
Horse-Thief Indians, who aj)peared to have just returned 
from a successful foray. With the breaking up of the 
missions many of the Indians had returned to their 
tribes in the mountains. Their knowledge of the 
Spanish language, and familiarity with the ranches and 
towns, enabled them to pass and repass, at pleasure, 
between their villages in the Sierra and the ranchos 
on the coast. They very soon availed themselves of 
these facilities to steal and run off into ike mountains 
bands of horses, and in a short time it became the occu- 
pation of all the Indians inhabiting the southern Sierra 
Nevada, as w^ell as the plains beyond. 

Three or four parties would be sent at a time from 
different villages, and every week was signalized by the 
carrying-off of hundreds of horses to be killed and eaten 
in the interior. Kepeated expeditions had been made 
against them by the Californians, who rarely succeeded 
in reaching the foot of the mountains, and were invaria- 
bly defeated when they did. 

As soon as the fresh trail had been discovered, four 
men, two Delawares with Maxwell and Dick Owens, 



THIKD EXPLORING EXPKDITIO.N. 131 

two of Fremont's favourite men, were sent forward 
upon the trail. The rest of the party had followed along 
at their usual gait, but Indian signs became so thick, 
trail after trail joining on, that they started rapidly after 
the men, fearing for their safety. After a few miles 
ride, they reached a spot which had been the recent 
camping ground of a village, and where abundant grass 
arid good water suggested a halting place for the night. 
It was, evidently, a favorite encampment of the Horse 
Thieves, as horee-bones whitened the ground in every 
direction. They immediately set about unpacking their 
animals and preparing to encamp. 

While thus engaged, they heard what seemed to be 
the barking of many dogs, coming apparently from a 
village, not far distant; but they had hardly thrown off 
their saddles when they suddenly became aware that it 
was the noise of women and children shouting and cry- 
ing ; and this was sufficient notice that the men who had 
been sent ahead had fallen among unfriendly Indians, so 
that a fight had already commenced. 

It did not need an instant to throw the saddles on 
again, and leaving four men to guard the camp, Fre- 
mont, with the rest, rode off in the direction of the 
sounds. 

They had galloped but half a mile, when crossing a 
little ridge, they came abruptly in view of several hun- 
dred Indians advancing on each side of a knoll, on the 
top of which were the men, where a cluster of trees 
and rocks made a good defence. It was evident that 
they had come suddenly into the midst of the Indian 
village, and jumping from their horses, with the instinc- 
tive skill of old hunters and mountaineers as they were, 
had got into an admirable place to fight from. 



132 LIFE AND SERVICE3 OF JOUN C. FiiKMONT. 

Tlie Indians had nearly surrounded the knoll, and 
were about getting possession of the horses as Fremont's 
party came in view. Their welcome shout as they 
charged up the hill was answered by the yell of the 
Delawares as they dashed down to recover their animals, 
and the crack of Owen's and Maxwell's rifles. Owens 
had singled out the foremost Indian, who went headlong 
down the hill, to steal horses no more. . 

Profiting by the, first surprise of the Indians, and 
anxious for the safety of the men who had been left in 
camp, the whites immediately retreated towards it, 
checking the Indians with occasional rifle shots, with the 
range of which it seemed remarkable that they were 
acquainted. 

Night was drawing on as they reached their camp, 
the Indians scattered through the woods and rocks about, 
whence they kept up animated harangues to the whites. 

Many of them had been mission Indians, and spoke 
Spanish well. " Wait," they said, " JEsperate Carrajos 
— wait until morning. There are two big villages close 
by; we have sent for the chief: he'll be down before 
morning with all the people, and you will all die. 
None of you shall go back ; we will have all your horses." 

The whole camp were on guard until daylight. As 
soon as it was dark, each man crept to his post. Tliey 
heard the women and children retreating towards the 
mountains, but nothing disturbed the quiet of the camp, 
except when one of the Delawares shot at a wolf as it 
jumped over a log, and which he mistook for an Indian, 
As soon as it grew light they took to the most open 
ground, and retreated into the plain. This was a village 
of Chauchiles Indians, and the locality has since be- 
come well known under the name of Mariposas. 



THIRD EXPLOKING KXPKDITIOX. 133 

The party again, by a more circuitous route, puslied 
on to their rendezvous with the main camp. 

In his search after liis companions, Fremont entered 
into high and rugged mountains, where lie was shut in 
by the winter's snows, from which he extricated him- 
self with great difficulty, and with the loss of all his 
cattle. 

After a delay of some weeks both parties descended 
into the " Great California Yalley," glad of their escape 
from suffering, and confident of again enjoying the hos- 
pitable welcome they had received the year before. 
Leaving them in the valley of the San Joaquin, Fre- 
mont proceeded alone to Monterey, to make known to 
the authorities the condition of his party, and obtained 
permission to recruit and procure the supplies necessary 
to proceed on his exploration. 

Journeying in the security of this permission, he was~ 
suddenly arrested in his march, near Monterey, by an 
officer at the head of a body of cavalry, who bore him 
a violent message from the commanding officer in Cali- 
fornia — Gen. Castro — commanding him to retire instant- 
ly from the country. 

This message — peremptory and rude, denouncing the 
party as highwaymen and robbers, and inexplicable to 
Fremont — was the result of orders from the city of 
Mexico, directing that, in the event Fremont repeated 
his visit to California, he and his party should be seized 
and sent prisoners to Mexico, as had happened to Pike 
in his expedition to ISTew Mexico. 

The General's rude message met with a suitable re- 
sponse. Fremont refused to follow a course for which 
he was totally unprepared. He was in no condition to 
throw his party into the desert from which they had 



134: LIFE AND SKRVICKS OF JOHN C. FliKMONT. 

jnst issued, but retired into tlic "Pico del Gabellan," 
(Hawk's Peak), a rougli mouutain overlooking the 
plains of Sail Juan and Monterey. He chose, near the 
summit, a strong position, which he strengthened by a 
rude fort ol felled oak trees, over which he hoisted the 
American flag. The position was strong, powder and 
ball plenty, and the men were the flow^er of our western 
frontier. For three days they remained encamped, 
during which they saw Castro, at the mission of San 
Juan, in the plain immediately below them, preparing 
his forces, scaling his cannon, and gathering in the force 
of the country, which he strengthened by Indians. 

The country was thrown into great excitement, and 
the serious condition of affairs is very clearly shown by 
the following letter from the United States Consul at 
Monterey to the Consul at Mazatlan : 



" Consulate of the United Stati 
Monterey, California, March 9, 



States, > 
J, 1S46. \ 

" Sir : Enclosed with this you will receive several copies of 
correspondence in this towrn for the present week ; also an offi- 
cial letter for the captain of any of our ships-of-war you may 
have in your port on your receiving this letter. It is impossible 
to say whether Senor Castro, the Prefects and the General will 
attack Captain Fremont ; we expect such will be the case. 

" I am just informed by Senor Arce, the general's secretary, 
who has just come in from the general's camp, (San Juan), that 
the whole country will be raised to force Capt. Fremont, if they 
required so many. Senor Arce further says, that the camp of 
the Americans is near Mr. Hartwell's rancho on a high hill, 
with his flag flying ; of the latter T am not certain. xVs you are 
acquainted with this country and its people, you will advise with 
our naval captains on the subject of sailing immediately for this 
port. 



THIRD EXPLORING EXPEDITION'. 135 

" If the vessel is not actually obliged to go elsewhere, it is my 
earnest desire she sails for Monterey on the receipt of this, 
although everything may end pleasantly amongst us. 
" Believe me to be, yours sincerely, 

"Thomas 0. Larkin. 

" To John Parrot, Esq., United States Consul, Mazatlan." 



Two couriers were sent to Fremont's camp by Mr. 
Larkin. One, an American, failed to get through; 
the other, a native Californian, succeeded in reaching 
his camp, after a narrow escape from being shot by 
Fremont's men. 

He brought back a note in pencil, from Captain Fre- 
mont,* and reported that two thousand of his country- 
men could not compel him to leave the country, although 
his party was so small. 

The following is Fremont's note to the consul, dated : 

" March 10, 1846. 

"My Dear Sir: I this moment received your letters, and 
without waiting to read them, acknowledge the receipt, which 
the courier requires, immediately. 

" I am making myself as strong as possible, in the intention 
that if we are unjustly attacked, we will fight to extremity, and 
refuse quarter, trusting to our country to avenge our death. 
No one has reached our camp, and from the heights we are able 
to see the troops (with the glass) mustering at St. John's and 
preparing cannon. I thank you for your kindness and good 
wishes, and would write more at length as to my intentions, did 
I not fear that my letter would be intercepted. We have in no 
wise done wrong to the people or the authorities of the country, 

* These papers are on file in the State Department. 



136 LIFE AND SEKVICE8 OF JOHN C. FltKMONT. 

and if we are hemmed in and assaulted here, we will die, every 
man of us, under the flag of our country. 

" Very truly yours, 

"J. C. Fremont. 

" Thomas O. Larkin, Esq., Consul 
for the United States, Monterey/.'''' 

They remained in their encampment several days, in 
hourly expectation of an attack. The men were strongly 
disposed to surprise Castro's camp in the night, but 
Fremont was unwilling to compromise his government 
and the safety of the settlers in the country, by any 
violent act on his part. Towards the close of the fourth 
day, while they sat in council on the dijficulties of their 
position, the flag which had been hoisted on a tall 
sapling which had been trimmed into a flag-staff, sud- 
denly fell, staff and all, to the ground. It was ominous. 
The men looked at each other doubtingly, and Fremont 
with great presence of mind availed himself of the inci- 
dent to decide their course. " Men," said he, that 
means saddle up," — and before morning they were' 
many miles distant on the flank of the San Joaquin 
valley. 

During the night a messenger from Castro, (Gilroy, 
of the valley of San Juan), reached the deserted camp 
where he found the tires still burning. He brought 
with him a letter from Castro, offering to Fremont a 
cessation of hostilities, and proposing thej^ should join 
their forces and declare the country independent of 
Mexico, and march against Governor Pico, who was in 
the southern part of the territory. 

Fremont now quietly and without molestation conti- 
nued his journey northward, up the valley »f the 



THIRD EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 137 " 

Sacramento, into Oregon. For what followed, we 
avail ourselves of tlie succinct, but thrilling account 
given by Col. Benton, in the second volume of liis 
"Tliirtj Years' View." ' 

" Turning his back on the Mexican possessions, and looking- to 
Oregon as the fiekl of his future labors, Mr. Fremont determined 
to explore a new route to the Wah-lah-math settlements and the 
tide-water region of the Columbia, through the wild and elevated 
region of the Tlamath lakes. A romantic interest attached to 
this region from the grandeur of its features, its lofty mountains 
and snow-clad peaks, and from the formidable character of its 
warlike inhabitants. In the first week of May he was at the 
north end of the great Tlamath lake, and in Oregon — the lake 
being cut near its south end by the parallel of 42° north 
latitude. On the eighth day of that month a strange sight 
presented itself — almost a startling apparition — two men riding up 
and penetrating a region which few ever approached without paying 
toll of life or blood. They proved to be two of Mr. Fremont's 
old voyageurs, and quickly told their story. They were part of 
a guard of six men conducting a United States officer, who was 
on his trail with despatches from Washington, and whom they 
bad left two days back, while they came on to give notice of his 
approach, and to ask that assistance might be sent him. They 
themselves had only escaped the Indians by tie swiftness of 
their horses. It was a case in which no time was to be lost, nor 
a mistake made. Mr. Fremont determined to go himself; and 
taking ten picked men, four of them Delaware Indians, he took 
down the western shore of the lake on the morning of the 9th, 
(the direction the officer was to come), and made a ride of sixty 
miles without a halt. But to meet men, and not to miss them, 
was the difficult point in this trackless region. It was not the 
case of a high road, where all travellers must meet in passing 
each other : at intervals there were places — defiles, or camping 



I 



138 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

grounds — where both parties must pass ; and watching for 
these, he came to one in the afternoon, and decided that, if the 
party was not killed, it must be there tl)at night. He halted 
and encamped ; and, as the sun was going down, had the inex- 
pressible satis/action to see the four men approaching. The 
officer proved to be a lieutenant of the United States marines, 
who had been dispatched from Washington the November pre- 
vious, to make his way by Vera Cruz, the City of Mexico and 
Mazatlan, to Monterey, iu Upper California, deliver despatches 
to the United States consul there ; and then find Mr. Fremont, 
wherever he should be. His despatches for Mr. Fremont were 
only a letter of introduction from the Secretary of State, (Mr. 
Buchanan), and some letters and slips of newspapers from 
Senator Benton and his family, and some verbal communications 
r from the Secretary of State. The verbal communications were 
/ that Mr. Freemont should watch and counteract any foreign 
scheme on California, and conciliate the good will of the 
inhabitants towards the United States. Upon this intimation of 
the government's wishes, Mr. Fremont turned back from Ore- 
gon, in the edge of which he then was, and returned to 
California. The letter of introduction was in the common form, 
that it might tell nothing if it fell into the hands of foes, and 
signified nothing of itself; but it accredited the bearer, and 
gave the stamp of authority to what he communicated ; and 
upon this Mr. Fremont acted ; for it was not to be supposed that 
Lieut. Gillespie had been sent so far, and through so many dan- 
gers, merely to deliver a common letter of introduction on the 
ehores of the Tlamath lake." 

The events of the niglit referred to bj Mr. Benton, 
and of a few succeeding days, are graphically told by 
Carson himself, in an article furnished to the "Washing- 
ton Union of June 16th, 1847, from which we make 
the following extract : 



THEBD EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 139 

" ' Mr. Gillespie bad brought the Colonel letters fi'oin home — 
the first he had had since leaving the States the year before — 
and he was up, and kept a large fire burning until after mid- 
night ; the rest of us were tired out, and all went to sleep. 
This was the only night in all our travels, except the one night 
on the island in the Salt Lake, that we failed to keep guard ; 
and as the men were so tired, and we expected no attack now 
that we had sixteen iu the party, the Colonel didn't like to ask 
it of them, but sat up late himself. Owens and I were sleeping 
together, and we were waked at the same time by the licks of 
the axe that killed our men. At first, I didn't know it was 
that ; but I called to Basil, who was that side — ' What's the 
■ matter there ? — What's that fuss about V — he never answered, 
for he was dead then, poor fellow, and he never knew what killed 
him — his head had baen cut in, in his sleep ; the other groaned 
a little as he died. The Delawares (we had four with us) were 
sleeping at that fire, and they sprang up as the Tlamaths charged 
them. One of them caught up a gun, which was unloaded; 
but, although he could do no execution, he kept them at bay, 
fighting like a soldier, and didn't give up until he was shot full 
of arrows — three entering his heart ; he died bravely. As soon 
as I had called out, I saw it was Indians in the camp, and I and 
Owens together cried out ' Indians.' There were no orders 
given ; things went on too fast, and the Colonel had men with 
him that didn't need to be told their duty. The Colonel and I, 
Maxwell, Owens, Godey, and Stepp, jumped together, we six, 
and ran to the assistance of our Delawares. I don't know who 
fired and who didn't ; but I think it was Stepp's shot that killed 
the Tlamath chief; for it was at the crack of Stepp's gun that 
he fell. He had an English half-axe slung to his wrist by a 
cord, and there were forty arrows left in his quiver — the most 
beautiful and warlike arrows I ever saw. He must have been 
the bravest man among them, from the way he was armed, and 
judging by his cap. When the Tlamaths saw him fall, they 



140 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

ran ; but wq lay, every man wiUi bis rifle cocked, until daylight, 
expecting anotlier attack. 

" ' In the morning we found by the tracks that from fifteen to 
twenty of the TIamaths had attacked us. They had killed three 
'of our men, and wounded one of the Delawares, who scalped 
the chief, whom we left where he fell. Our dead men we car- 
ried on mules ; but, aftei' going about ten miles, we found it 
impossible to get them any farther through the thick timber, 
and finding a secret place, we buried them under logs and 
chunks, having no way to dig a grave. It was only a few days 
before this fight that some of these same Indians had come into 
our camp ; and, although we had only meat for two days, and 
felt sure that we should have to eat mules for ten or fifteen days 
to come, the Colonel divided with them, and even had a mule 
unpacked to give them some tobacco and knives.' 

" The party then retraced its way into California, and. two 
days after this rencontre they met a large village of TIamaths — 
more than a hundred warriors, Carson was ahead with ten 
men, but one of them having been discovered, he could not fol- 
low his orders, which were to send back word and let Fremont 
come up with the rest in case they found Indians. But as they 
had been seen, it only remained to charge the village, which 
they did, killing many, and putting the rest to flight. The 
women and children, Carson says, we didn't interfere with ; but 
they burnt the village, together with their canoes and fishing 
nets. In a subsequent encounter, the same day, Carson's life 
was imminently exposed. As they galloped up he was rather in 
advance, when he observed an Indian fixing his arrow to let fly 
at him. Carson levelled his rifle, but it snapped, and in an 
instant the arrow would have pierced him, had not Fremont, 
seeing the danger, dashed his horse on the Indian and knocked 
him down. ' I owe my life to them two,' says Carson — ' the 
Colonel and Sacramento saved me.' Sacramento is a noble 
Califoroiau horse which Captain Sutter gave to Colonel Fremont 



THIED EXPLORING EXPEDITION, 141 

in 1844, and which has twice made the distance between Ken 
tuckv and his native valley, whei'e he earned his name by swim- 
ming the river after which he is called, at the close of a long 
day's journey. Notwithstanding all his hardships — for he has 
travelled everywhere with his master — he is still the favorite 
horse of Colonel Fremont." 

We resume the extract from Benton's " Thirty Years' 
^iew:" 

" It was in the midst of such dangers as these, that science 
was pursued by Mr. Fremont ; that the telescope was carried to 
read the heavens ; the barometer to measure the elevations of 
the earth ; the thermometer to gauge the temperature of the 
air ; the pencil to sketch the grandeur of mountains, and to 
paint the beauty of flowers ; the pen to write down whatever 
was new, or strange, or useful in the works of nature. It was 
in the midst of such dangers, and such occupations as these, and 
in the wildest regions of the Farthest West, that Mr. Fremont 
was pursuing science and shunning war, when the arrival of 
Lieutenant Gillespie, and his communications from Washington, 
suddenly changed all his plans, turned him back from Oregon, 
and opened a new and splendid field of operations in California 
itself. He arrived in the valley of the Sacramento in the month 
of Mav, 1846, and found the country alarmingly and critically 
situated. Three great operations, fatal to American interests, 
were then going on, and without remedy, if not arrested at once. 
These were — 1. The massacre of the Americans, and the 
destruction of their settlements, in the valley of the Sacramento. 
2. Tiie subjection of California to British protection. 3. The 
transfer of the public domain to British subjects. And all this 
with a view to anticipate the events of a Mexican war, and to 
shelter California from the arms of the United States. 

" The American settlers sent a deputation to the camp of Mr. 
Fremont, in the valley of the Sacramento, laid all these dangers 



142 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FKEMONT. 

before him, and implored him to place himself at their head anrf 
save them from destruction. General Castro was then in march 
upon them : the Indians were incited to attack their families, 
and burn their wheat-fields, and were only waiting for the dry 
season to apply the torch. Juntas were in session to trans- 
fer the country to Great Britain : the public domain was passing 
away in large grants to British subjects : a British fleet was 
expected on the coast; the British vice-consul, Forbes and the 
emissary priest, Macnamara, ruling and conducting every- 
thing, and all their plans so far advanced as to render The 
least delay fatal. It was then the beginning of June. War had 
broke out between the United States and Mexico, but that was 
unknown in California. Mr. Fremont had left the two countries 
at peace when he set out upon his expedition, and was determined 
to do nothing to disturb their relations: he had even left 
California to avoid giving offence ; and to return and' take up 
arms in so short a time was apparently to discredit his own pre- 
vious conduct, as well as to implicate his government. He felt 
all the responsibilities of his position ; but the actual approach 
of Castro, and the immediate danger of the settlers, left hini no 
alternative. He determined to put himself at the head of the 
people, and to save the country. To repulse Castro was not 
sufficient : to overturn the Mexican government in California, 
and to establish Californian Independence, was the bold resolve, 
and the only measure adequate to the emergency. That resolve 
was taken, and executed with a celerity that gave it a romantic 
success. The American settlers rushed to his camp — brought 
their arms, horses and ammunition — were formed into a battal- 
ion ; and obeyed with zeal and alacrity the orders they received. 
In thirty days all the northern part of California was freed from 
Mexican authority — Independence proclaimed — the^fla g^of j 
Independence raised — Castro flying to the south — the American 
' settTers""s"ave3'~Trom desti'uction ; and the British party in 
California counteracted and broken up in all their schemes. 
"This movement for independence was the salvation of 



THIRD EXPLOKENG EXPEDITION. 143 

California, and snatched it out of the hands of the British at the 
moment they were ready to clutch it. For two hundred years — 
from the time of the navigator Drake, who almost claimed it as 
a discovery and placed the English 'name of New Albion upon 
it — the eye of England has been upon California; and the mag- 
nificent bay of San Francisco, the great seaport of the North 
Pacific Ocean, has been surveyed as her own. The approaching 
war between Mexico and the United States was the crisis in 
which she expected to realize the long-deferred wish for its 
acqiHsition ; and carefully she took her measures accordingly. 
She sent two squadrons to .the Pacific as soon as Texas was 
incorporated — well seeing the actual war which was to grow 
out of that event — a small one into the mouth of the Columbia, 
an imposing one to Mazatlan, on the Mexican coast, to watch 
the United States squadron there, and to anticipate its move- 
ments upon California. Commodore Sloat, commanding the 
squadron at Mazatlan, saw that he was watched, and pursued by 
Admiral Seymour, who lay along side of him, and he determin- 
ed to deceive him. He stood out to sea, and was followed by the 
British Admiral. 

" During the day he bore west, across the ocean, as if going. 
to the Sandwich Islands : Admiral Seymour followed. In the 
night the American commodore tacked, and ran up the coast 
towards California : the British Admiral, not seeing the tack, 
continued on his course, and went entirely to the Sandwich 
Islands before he was undeceived. Commodore Sloat arrived 
before Monterey on the second of July, entering that port ami- 
cably, and offering to salute the town, which the authorities 
declined on the pretext that they had no powder to return it — 
in reality because they momentarily expected the British fleet. 
Commodore Sloat remained five days before the town, and until 
he heard of Fi-emont's operations ; then believing that Fremont 
had orders from his government to take California, he having 
none himself, he determined to act himself. He received the 
news of Fremont's successes on the 6th day of July : on the 7th 



144 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOIIX C. FRKMONT. 

}ie took the town of Monterey, and sent a dispatch to Fremont. 
The latter came to him in al! speed, at the liead of his mounted 
force. Going immediately on board the commodore's vessel, an 
explanation took place. The commodore' learnt with astonish- 
ment that Fremont had no orders from his gov^ernment to com- 
mence hostilities — that he acted entirely on his own responsi- 
bility. This left the commodore without authority for having 
taken Monterey ; for still at this time, the commencement of the 
war with Mexico was unknown. Uneasiness came upon the 
commodore. He remembered the fate of Captain Jones in 
making the mistake of seizing the town once before in time of 
peace. He resolved to return to the United States, which he 
did — turning over the command of the squadron to Commodore 
Stockton, who had arrived on the 15th. The next day (16th) 
Admiral Seymour arrived ; his flagship, the CoUingwood, of 80 
guns, and his squadron the largest British fleet ever seen in the 
Pacific. To his astonishment he beheld the American flag flying 
over Monterey, the American squadron in its harbor, and Fre- 
mont's mounted riflemen encamped over the town. His mission 
was at an end. The prize had escaped him. He attempted 
nothing further, and Fremont and Stockton rapidly pressed the 
conquest of California to its conclusion. The subsequent mili- 
tary events can be traced by any history ; they were the natural 
sequence of the great measure conceived and executed by Fre- 
mont before any squadron had arrived upon the coast, before be 
knew of any war with Mexico, and without any authority from 
his government, except the equivocal and enigmatical visit of Mr. 
Gillespie. Before the junction of Mr. Fremont with Commodores 
Sloat and Stockton, his operations had been carried on under the 
flag of Independence — the Bear Flag, as it was called — the 
device of the bear being adopted on account of the courageous 
qualities of that animal (the white bear), which never gives the 
road to men — which attacks any number — and fights to the last 
with increasing ferocity, with amazing strength of muscle, and 
with an incredible tenacity of the vital principle — never more 



'j^T'fmh, 




THIRD EXPLORING EXPEDITIOX. 145 

formidable and dangerous than when mortally wounded. The 
Independents took the device of this bear for their (lag-, and 
established the independence of California under it; and in join- 
ing the United States forces, hauled down this flag and hoisted 
the flag of the United States. And the fate of California would 
have been the same whether the United States squadrons had 
arrived or not, and whether the Mexican war had happened or 
not. California was in a revolutionary state, already divided 
from Mexico politically, as it had always been geographically. 
The last governor-general from Mexico, Dqu Michel Toreno, had 
been resisted, fought, captured and shipped back to Mexico, with 
his 300 cut-throat soldiers. An insurgent government was in 
operation, determined to be free of Mexico, sensible of inability 
to stand alone, and looking, part to the United States, part to 
Great Britain for the support which they needed. All the 
American settlers were for the United States protection and 
joined Fremont. The leading Californians were also joining 
him. His conciliatory course drew them rapidly to him. The 
Picos who were the leading men of the revolt (Don Pio, Don 
Andres, and Don Jesus,) bec^ame his friends. California, became 
independent of Mexico by the revolt of the Picos, and indepen- 
dent of them by the revolt of the American settlers, had its des- 
tiny to fulfill — which was, to be handed over to the United States. 
So that its incorporation with the American Republic was 
equally sure in any and every event." 

The following incident illustrates the conciliatory 
policy of Col. Fremont, towards the Picos, which Col. 
Benton refers to in the last preceding paragraph, as well 
as the sagacity and judgment — to say nothing of the 
generosity with which he discharged his duties as 
an officer during this critical period. 

One of the Picos, the brother of the governor of 
California, had been dismissed by Fremont on parole, 

7 



146 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONi. 

and was recaptured in the aci of breaking it. He was 
heading an insurrection which might have proved fatal 
to the American army ; and the American soldiers 
clamored for his head. Pico was brought before Fre- 
mont, identified, tried by a court martial, and condemned 
to death. Through the whole examination and the deli- 
very of the sentence, he remained cool and com- 
posed, and received his last sentence with true Castilian 
dignity. The hour of twelve was fixed for the execu- 
tion. About an hour before, an unusual noise was heard 
without, and before one had time to ascertain its cause, 
a company of ladies and children rushed into the room 
to which the colonel had retired, threw themselves on 
their knees, and with the eloquence which only such an 
emergency could inspire, begged that the husband and 
father might be spared. The stern officer who was him- 
self both a husband and a father, and whose thoughts 
were suddenly hurried back over the wilderness, and 
the mountain, to their distant homes in the East, wa^ 
unprepared for this appeal, and surrendered to the 
impulses of humanity without resistance. Kaising the 
broken hearted mother, lie exclaimed, .but with choaking 
utterance, " he is pardoned." He would have turned 
to escape the grateful blessings which were invoked upon 
his head, and from witnessing the tears of joy which fol- 
lowed the tears of despair, from their now delighted eyes, 
but they would not permit it. As the shortest and fit- 
test way of closing the trying scene, Col. Fremont sent 
for the prisoner to receive his pardon, in the presence 
of his family. When Pico entered the room, the 
countenances of all present told him of his good for- 
tune, and when it was confirmed by the word of the 
Colonel, he was for a moment speechless. He had 



THIRD EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 147 

borne misfortune and disgrace Avith firmness, but the 
news of his pardon was too much for him. Overcome 
with emotion, lie iiung himself upon the floor before 
Colonel Fremont, clasped his knees convulsively, swore 
eternal fidelity to him and his, and begged the privi- 
lege of fighting a-nd dying for him. From that day 
forth, Col. Fremont liad no firmer friend than his for- 
mer inveterate antagonist, Pico. 

Tlie prudence, heroism, skill, and endurance dis- 
played by Col. Fremont, in the conquest of California, 
furnished the administration at Washington, with one 
of its most grateful and decisive triumphs. The follow- 
ing passages from the annual report of Mr. Marcy, then 
Secretary of War, bearing date December 6th, 1846, will 
show the importance which President Polk and his 
cabinet, attached to the services of the young hero, in 
securing that triumph. 

MR. MAKCy's report ON FREMONt's EXPLORATIONS. 

War Department, Dec. 5, 1846. 
* * * vV * * 

"In May, 1845, John C. Fremont, then a brevet captain in the 
corps of Topograpliical Engineers, and siiu;e appointed a Heu- 
tenant colonel, left here under orders from this department to 
pnrsue his explorations in the regions beyond the Rocky Moun- 
tains. The objects of this service were, as those of his previous 
explorations had been, of a scientific character, without any view 
whatever to military operations. Not an officer nor soldier of 
the United States army accompanied him ; and his whole force 
consisted of sixty-two men, employed by himseU' for security 
against Indians, and for procuring subsistence in the wilderness , 
and desert country through which he was to pass. 

"One of the objects he had in \'iew was to discover a new and 



148 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. IKEMONT. 

shorter route from the western base of the Rocky Mountains to 
the mouth of the Cohnnbia river. This search, for a part of the 
distance, would carry him through the unsettled, and afterward 
through a corner of the settled parts of California. He 
approached these settlements in the winter of 1845-6. Aware 
of the critical state of atiairs between the United States and 
Mexico, and determined to give no cause of offence to the 
authorities of the province, with commendable prudence he 
halted his command on the frontier, one hundred miles from 
Monterey, and proceeded alone to that city to explain the object 
of his coming to the commandant general, Castro, and to obtain 
permission to go to the valley of the San Joaquim, where there 
was game for his men and grass for his horses, and no inhabi- 
tants to be molested by his presence. The leave was granted ; 
but scarcely had he reached the desired spot for refreshment and 
repose, before he received information from the American settle- 
ments, and by expresses from our Consul at Monterey, that 
General Castro was preparing to attack him with a compara- 
tively large force of artillery, cavalry and infantry, upon the 
pretext that, under the cover of a scientific mission, he was 
exciting the American settlers to revolt. In view of this danger 
and to be in a condition to repel an attack, he then took a position 
on a mountain overlooking Monterey, at a distance of about 
thirty miles, entrenched it, raised the flag of the United States, 
and with his own men, sixty-two in number, awaited the 
approach of the commandant general. 

From the lih to the 10th of March, Colonel Fremont and his 
little band maintained this position. General Castro did not 
approach within attacking distance, and Colonel Fremont, adher- 
ing to his plan of avoiding all collisions, and determined neither 
to corapromit his government nor the American settlers, ready to 
join him at all hazards, if he had been attacked, abandoned his 
position, and commenced his march for Oregon, intending by 
that route to return to the United States. Deeming all dauger 
from the Mexicans to be passed, he yielded to the wishes of some 



CONQUKSl' OF CALIFORNIA. 14.9 

of liis men wlio desired to remain in the country, discharged 
them iVoiii Ills .service, and refused to receive others in their 
stead, so cautious was he to avoid doing anything which would 
compromit tlie American settlers or give even a color of offence 
to the Mexican authorities. He pui'sued his march slowdy and 
jeisurely, as the state of his men ai\d horses required, until the 
middle of May, and had reached tlie northern shore of the 
greater Tlamath Lake, within the limits of the Oregon Territory, 
when he found his further progress in that direction obstructed 
by impassable snowy mountains and hostile Indians, who, having 
been excited against him by General Castro, had killed and 
wounded four of his men, and left him no repose either in camp 
or on his march. At the same time information reached him 
that General Castro, in addition to his Indian allies, was advanc- 
ing in person against him with artilleiy and cavalry, at the head 
of four or five hundred men ; that they were passing around the 
head of the Bay of San Francisco to a rendezvous on the north 
side of it, and that the American settlers in the valley of the 
Sacramento were comprehended in the scheme of destruction 
meditated against his own party. \ 

Under these circumstances, he determined to turn upon his \ 
Mexican pursuers, and seek safety both for his own party and the \ 
American settlers, not merely in the defeat of Castro, but in the 
total overthrow of the Mexican authority in California, and the 
establishment of an independent government in that extensive 
department. It was on the 6th of June, and before the com- 
mencement of the war between the United States and Mexico 
could have there be known, that this resolution was taken ; and, 
by the 5 th of July, it was carried into effect by a series of rapid 
attacks, by a small body of adventurous men, under the conduct 
of an intrepid leader, quick to perceive and able to direct the 
proper measures for accomplishing such a daring enterprise. 

On the 11th of June a convoy of 200 horses for Castro's 
camp, with an officer and 14 men, were surprised and captured 
by 12 of Fremont's party. On the 15th, at daybreak, the military 



150 LIF-E AND SERVICKS OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

post of Sanoma was also surprised and taken, with nine brass 
cannon, 250 stand of muskets, and several ofBcers and some men 
and munitions of war. 

" Leaving a small garrison at Sanoma, Colonel Fremont went to 
the Sacramento to rouse the American settlers; but scarcely 
had he arrived there, when an express reached him from the 
garrison at Sanoma, with information that Castro's whole force 
was crossing the bay to attack that place. This intelligence was 
received in the afternoon of the 23d of June, while he was on 
the American fork of the Sacramento, 80 miles from the little 
garrison at Sanoma ; and, at 2 o'clock on the morning of the 
25th, he arrived at that place with 90 riflemen from the Ameri- 
can settlers in that valley. The enemy had not yet appeared. 
Scouts were sent out to reconnoitre, and a party of 20 fell in 
with a squadron of 70 dragoons (all of Castro's force which had 
crossed the bay), attacked and defeated it, killing and wounding 
five, without harm to themselves ; the Mexican commander, De 
la Torre, barely escaping with the loss of his transport boats and 
nine pieces of brass artillery, spiked. 

" The country north of the bay of San Francisco being cleared 
of the enemy, Colonel Fremont returned to Sanoma on the even- 
ing of the 4th of July, and on the morning of the 5th, called the 
people together, explained to them the condition of things in 
the province, and recommended an immediate declaration of 
independence. The declaration was made, and he was selected 
to take the chief direction of aflairs. 

"The attack on Castro was the next object. He was at Santa 
Clara, an entrenched post on the upper or south side of the 
Bay of San Francisco, with 400 men and two pieces of field 
artillery. A circuit of more than a hundred miles must be 
traversed to reach him. On the 6th of July the pursuit was 
commenced, by a body of 160 mounted riflemen, commanded 
by Colonel Fremont in person, who, in three days, arrived 
at the American settlements on the Rio de los Americanos. 
Here he learnt that Castro had abandoned Santa Clara, and was 



CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA. 151 

retreating south towards Ciudad de los Angeles (the city of the 
Angels), the seat of the Governor General of the Californias, and 
distant 400 miles. It was instantly resolved on to pursue him 
to that place. At the moment of departure the gratifying intel- 
ligence was received that war with Mexico had commenced ; 
that Monterey had been taken by our naval force, and the flag 
of the United States there raised on the Yth of July; and that 
the fleet would co-operate in the pui'suit of Castro and his forces. 
The flag of independence was hauled down, and that of the 
United States hoisted, amidst the hearty greetings and to the 
great joy of the American settlers and the forces under the com- 
ruand of Colonel Fremont. 

"The combined pursuit was rapidly continued; and on the 
12th of August, Commodore Stockton and Colonel Fremont, 
with a detachment of marines from the squadron and some rifle- 
men, entered the City of the Angels, without resistance or objec- 
tion ; the Governor General, Pico, the Commandant General 
Castro and all the Mexicau authorities, having fled and dispersed. 
Commodore Stockton took possession of the whole country as a 
conquest of the United States, and appointed Colonel Fremont 
Governor, under the law of nations ; to assume the functions of 
that office when he should return to the squadron. 

" Thus, in the short space of sisty days from the first decisive 
movement, this conquest was achieved by a small body of men, 
to an extent beyond their own expectation ; for the Mexican 
authorities proclaimed it a conquest, not merely of the northern 
part, but of the whole province of the Californias. 

"The Commandant General, Castro, on the 9th of August, 
from his camp at the Mesa, and next day ' on the road to 
Sonora,' announced this result to the people, together with the 
actual flight and dispersion of the former authorises; and at the 
same time, he officially communicated the fact of the conquest to 
the French, English, and Spanish Consuls in California ; and 
to crown the whole, the official paper of the Mexican govern- 
ment, on the 16th of October, in laying these official communi- 



152 T.IFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

cations before the public, introduced them with the einpbatic 

declaration, ' The loss of the Californias is consummated.' 

" The whole province was yielded up to the United States, and is 

now in our military occupancy. A small part of the troops 

sent out to subject this province will constitute, it is presumed, a 

sufficient force to retain our possession, and the remainder will 

be disposable for other objects of the war. 

********* 

"W. L. Marct. 
'' To THE President of the United States." 

The extraordinary journey of Fremont, with ninety 
riflemen, to succor the American garrison at Sanomaj 
which the Secretary of War deems worthy of such 
specific commendation, was altogether surpassed, a 
few months later, when impelled by motives equally 
humane and patriotic, he rode nine hundred and sixty 
miles in seven days, through a rough and dangerous 
country, to inform General Kearney of an impending 
insurrection in Lower California. An account of this 
extraordinary feat, in which, however, the distance is 
under-stated, was prepared for the Washington Intelli- 
gencer in 1848, by one who became, acquainted with 
the incidents from the lips of one of the party, and is 
every way worthy of being preserved among the 
choicest memorials of the young conqueror and explorer 
of California. We quote it as published in the National 
Intelligencer of Nov. 22, 1847. • 

The Extraordinary Ride of Lieut. Col. Fremont, his friend 
Don Jesus Pico, and his Servant, Jacob Dodson, from 
Los Angeles to Monterey and Back in March, 1847. 

" This extraordinary ride of 800 miles in eight days, including 
all stoppages and near two days' detention — a whole day and 



EXTRAORDINARY RmE. 15(J 

a night at Monterey, and nearly two half days at San Luis 
Obispo — having been brought into evidence before the Army 
Court Martial now in session in this city, and great desire being 
expressed by some friends, to know how the ride was made, I 
herewith send you the particulars, that you may publish them 
if you please, in the National Intelligencer as an incident con- 
nected with the times and affairs under review in the trial, of 
which you give so full a report. The circumstances were first 
got from Jacob, afterwards revised by Col. Fremont, and I drew 
them up from his statement. 

" The publication will show, besides the horsemanship of the 
riders, the power of the California horse, especially as one of the 
horses was subjected, in the course of the ride, to an extraor- 
dinary trial in order exhibit the capacity of his race. Of course 
this statement will make no allusion to the objects of the 
journey, but be confined strictly to its performance. 

" It was at daybreak on the morning of the 22d of March, 
that the party" set out from La Cuidad de los Angeles (the city 
of the Angels) in the southern part of Upper California, to pro- 
ceed, in the shortest time, to Monterey on the Pacific coast, 
distant full four hundred miles. The way is over a mountainous 
country, much of it uninhabited, with no other road than a 
trace, and many defiles to pass, particularly the maritime defile 
of el Rincon or Punto Gordo, fifteen miles in extent, made by 
the jutting of a precipitous mountain into the sea, and which 
can only be passed when the tide is out and the sea calm, and 
then in many places through the waves. The towns of Santa 
Barbara and San Luis Obispo, and occasional ranches, are the 
principal inhabited places on the route. Each of the party had 
three horses, nine in all, to take their turns under the saddle. 
The six loose horses ran ahead, without bridle or halter, and 
required some attention to keep to the track. When wanted 
for a change, say at the distance of twenty miles, they were 
caught by the lasso, thrown either by Don Jesus or the servant 
Jacob, who, though born in Washington, in his long expeditions 

7* 



154 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FKEMONT. 

with Col. Fremont, had become as expert as a Mexican with the 
lasso, as sure as the mountaineer with the rifle, equal to either 
on horse or foot, and always a lad of courage and fidelity. 

" None of the horses were shod, that being a practice unknown 
to the Californians. The most usual gait was a sweeping gallop. 
The first day they ran one hundred and twenty-five miles, pass- 
ing the San Fernando mountain, the defile of the Rincon, several 
other mountains, and slept at the hospitable ranche of Don Tho- 
mas Robberis, beyond the town of Santa Barbara. The only 
fatigue complained of in this day's ride was in Jacob's right arm, 
made tired by throwing the lasso, and using it as a whip to keep 
the loose horses to the track. 

"The next day they made another one hundred and twenty- 
five miles, passing the formidable mountain of Santa Barbara, 
and counting upon it the skeletons of some fifty horses, part of 
near double that number which perished in the crossing of that 
terrible mountain by the California battalion, on Christmas day, 
1846, amidst a raging tempest, and a deluge of rain and cold 
more killing than that of the Sierra Nevada — the day of severest 
sufiiering, say Fremont and his men, that they have ever passed. 
At sunset, the party stopped to sup with the friendly Captain 
Dana, and at nine at night San Luis Obispo was reached, the 
home of Don Jesus, and where an aft'ecting reception awaited 
Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont, in consequence of an incident 
which occurred there that history will one day record ; and he 
was detained till 10 o'clock in the morning receiving the visits 
of the inhabitants (mothers and children included), taking a 
breakfast of honor, and waiting for a relief of fresh horses to be 
brought in from the surrounding country. Here the nine horses 
from los Angeles were left, and eight others taken in their place, 
and a Spanish boy added to the party to assist in managing the 
loose horses. 

" Proceeding at the usual gait till eight at night, and having 
made some seventy miles, Don Jesus, who had spent the night 
before with his family and friends, and probably with but little 



EXTRAORDmAET RIDE. 155 

sleep, became fatigued, and proposed a halt for a few hours. It 
was in the valley of the Salinas (salt river called Buena Ventura 
in the old maps), and the haunt of marauding Indians. For 
safety during their repose, the party turned off the trace, issued 
through a canon into a thick wood, and laid down, the horses 
being put to grass at a short distance, with the Spanish boy in 
the saddle to watch. Sleep, when commenced, was too sweet to 
be easily given up, and it was half way between midnight and 
day, when the sleepers were aroused by an estampedo among 
the horses, and the calls of the boy. The cause of the alarm 
was soon found, not Indians, but white bears — this valley being 
their great resort, and the place where Colonel Fremont and 
thirty-five of his men encountered some hundred of them the 
summer before, killing thirty upon the ground. 

" The character of these bears is well known, and the bravest 
hunters do not like to- meet them without the advantage of num- 
bers. On discovering the enemy. Colonel Fremont felt for his 
pistols, but Don Jesus desired him to lie still, saying that ' people 
could scare bears ;' and immediately hallooed at them in Spanish, 
and they went off. Sleep went off also ; and the recovery of the 
horses frightened by the bears, building a rousing fire, making a 
breakfast from the hospitable supplies of San Luis Obispo, occu- 
pied the party till d<iy-break, when the journey was resumed 
Eighty miles, and th«» ifternoon brought the party to Monterey. 

" The next day, in the afternoon, the party set out on their 
return, and the two I^vses rode by Col. Fremont from San Luis 
Obispo, being a preser ■; to him from Don Jesus, he (Don Jesus) 
desired to make an ex[ u-iraent of what one of them could do. 
They were brothers, on - a grass younger than the other, both of 
the same color (cinnau? «i), and hence called el canalo, or los 
canalos, (the cinnamon or the cinnamons.) The elder was 
to be taken for the "rial; and the journey commenced 
upon him at leaving M'./terey, the afternoon well advanced. 
Thirty miles under the saddle done that evening, and the 
party stopped f( >• tje night. In the morning the elder 



156 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JODN C. FREilONT. 

caualo was again under the saddle for Col. Fremont, and for 
ninety miles he carried him without a change, and without 
apparent fatigue. It was still thirty miles to San Luis Obispo, 
■where the night was to be passed, and Don Jesus insisted that 
cafialo could do it, and so said the horse by his looks and action. 
But Col. Fremont would not put him to the trial, and, shifting 
the saddle to the younger brother, the elder was turned loose to 
run the remaining thirty miles without a rider. He did so, imme- 
diately taking the lead and keeping it all the way, and entering 
San Luis in a sweeping gallop, nostrils distended, snufiBng the 
air, and neighing with exultation at his return to his native pas- 
tures ; his younger brother all the time at the head of the horses 
under the saddle, bearing on his bit, and held in by his rider. 
The whole eight horses made their one hundred and twenty 
miles each that day (after thirty the evening before), the elder 
cinnamon making ninety of his under the saddle that day, 
besides thirty under the saddle the evening before ; nor was 
there the least doubt that he would have done the whole 
distance in the same time if he had continued under the sad- 
dle. 

" After a hospitable detention of another half a day at San Luis, 
Obispo, the party set out for Los Angeles on the same nine horses 
which they had rode from that place, and made the ride back in 
about the same time they had made it up, namely, at the rate 
of 125 miles a day. 

" On this ride, the grass on the road was the food for the horses. 
At Monterey they had barley ; but these horses, meaning those 
trained and domesticated, as the canalos were, eat almost any- 
thing of vegetable food, or even drink, that their master uses, 
by whom they are petted and caressed, and rarely sold. Bread, 
fruit, sugar, coifee, and even wine (like the Persian horses), they 
take from the hand of their master, and obey with like docility 
his slightest intimation. A tap of the whip on the saddle, springs 
them into action ; the check of a thread rein (on the Spanish 
bit) would stop them : and stopping short at speed they do not 



EXTEAOEDINARY EIDE. 157 

jostle the rider or throw him forward. They leap on anything 
— man, beast, or weapon, on which their master directs them. 
But this description, so far as conduct and behavior are con- 
cerned, of course only applies to the trained and domesticated 
horse. 



15S LIFE AND BKllVICKS OF JOHN C. KRKMONT. 



CHAPTER VIII, 

CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA COMPLETED JOINS COMMODORE 

STOCKTON DESCRIPTION OF HIS PARTY ON ITS ARRIVAL 

AT MONTEREY ORGANIZES THE CALIFORNIA BATTALION 

IS APPOINTED MAJOR ORIGIN OF THE CONTROVERSY 

BETWEEN COMMODORE STOCKTON AND BRIGADIER GENERAL 
KEARNEY COMMODORE STOCKTOn's REPORT OF THE CON- 
QUEST OF SOUTH CALIFORNIA INSURRECTION OF THE 

WAH-LAH-WAH-LAH INDIANS QUELLED CAPITULATION OF 

COUENGA FREMONT GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA. 

Ampler details of some of the events which preceded 
the capitulation of Couenga so eloquently grouped by 
Col. Benton, are necessary to a peifect appreciation of 
the military and administrative ability displayed by 
Col, Fremont in the emancipation of California. 

Castro's first hostile message reached him in the 
midst of his scientific employments about eight leagues 
from Monterey on the 3d of March, 1846. By the 1st 
of July he had scattered the combinations of Mexicans 
and Indians that had been formed against him. On the 
4tli of July he was elected governor of California by 
the revolutionists, and on the 10th about sunset, he 
received the gratifying intelligence, that encouraged 
by his success in the interior, Commodore Sloat had 
taken Monterey, and that the American flag had been 



I 



CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA COMPLETED. 159 

flying from the fort since the 7th. He immediately set 
out for the commodore's quarters, with his troops of 
160 mounted riflemen, in order to secure the co-opera- 
tion of the only branch of the A.mericaii military service 
in force in that quarter of the globe. He reached 
Monterey on the 19th of July. It so happened that the 
British ship of war Collingwood, of 80 guns, had arrived 
about a week after the capture. Had she arrived a 
week sooner it is generally conceded that the place 
could not have been taken without a contest with her 
commander Sir George Seymour, the people of the 
place having entered into arrangements with a view of 
transferring their allegiance to Great Britain. Among 
the oflicers of the Collingwood who happened to be at 
Monterey and saw Fremont enter the place with his 
company, was Lieutenant Frederick Walpole, of the 
Collingwood, who has given his impressions of the 
spectacle in a very readable book which he published 
on his return to England, entitled "Four years in the 
Pacific, in her Majesty's Ship ' Collingwood,' from 1844 
to 1848." 

"During our stay in Monterey," says Mr. Walpole, 
" Captain Fremont and his party arrived. They naturally 
excited curiosity. Here were true trappers, the class 
that produced the heroes of Fennimore Cooper's best 
works. These men had passed years in the wilds, living 
upon their own resources ; they were a curious set. A 
vast cloud of dust appeared first, and thence in long file 
emerged this wildest wild party. Fremont rode ahead, 
a spare, active-looking man, with such an eye ! He 
was dressed in a blouse and leggings, and wore a felt 
hat. After him came five Delaware Indians, who were 
his body-guard, and have been with him through all his 



160 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FRICMONT. 

wanderings ; tliey had charge of two baggage horses. 
The rest, many of them blacker than the Indians, rode 
two and two, the rifle held by one hand across the pom- 
mel of the saddle. Thirty-nine of them are his regular 
men, the rest are loafers picked up lately ; his original 
men are principally backwoodsmen, from the State of 
Tennessee and the banks of the upper waters of the 
Missouri. He has one or two with him who enjoy a 
high reputation in the prairies. Kit Carson is as well 
known there as ' the Duke ' is in Europe. The dress 
of these men was principally a long loose coat of deer 
skin, tied with thongs in front ; trowsers of the same, of 
their own manufacture, which, when wet through, they 
take off, scrape well inside with a knife, and put on as 
soon as dry ; the saddles were of various fashions, though 
these and a large drove of horses, and a brass field-gun, 
were things they had picked up about California. They 
are allowed no liquor, tea and sugar only ; this, no 
doubt, has much to do with their good conduct ; and 
the discipline, too, is very strict. They were marched 
up to an open space on the hills near the town, under 
some large fires, and there took up their quarters, in 
messes of six or seven, in the open air. The Indians lay 
beside their leader. One man, a doctor, six feet six 
high, was an odd-looking fellow. May I never come 
under his hands !" 

Contemporaneously with the arrival of Fremont's 
party at Monterey, Commodore Stockton entered the 
harbor in command of the Frigate Congress. Commo- 
dore Sloat, then in command of the Pacific squadron, 
who had been greatly embarrassed by the position 
he found himself placed in by the capture of Mon- 
terey, which he had made under the impression that 



CONQUKST OF CALIFOKNIA COMPLETED. 161 

Fremont's movements in the north had been conducted 
under orders from "Washington, determined, after some 
hesitation, to transfer the command of the fleet to Com- 
modore Stockton, and return to tlie United States. 

The same day that Commodore Stockton took com- 
mand of the squadron, he requested CoL Fremont to 
organize, and take the command, witli the rank of 
major, of what soon became famous as the " California 
battalion." The colonel complied with the commo- 
dore's request, waiving the rights which he might have 
asserted as the conqueror and liberator of the country, and 
at once entered cordially into the plans of the commodore 
for the subjugation of South California, which was in a 
state of insurrection. As the most unpleasant and 
momentous personal controversy that Col. Fremont has 
ever been engaged in, originated in his acceptance of 
this command from Commodore Stockton — and as the 
events have been the subject of a protracted judicial 
scrutiny, we shall probably discharge our duties most 
acceptably as his biographer, by relying for our record 
of the events out of which the controversy originated, 
and which are spread over the remainder of his sojourn 
in California as an American officer, upon official docu- 
ments and such public records as give events in the 
most compact and accessible form. With this view, we 
submit the following dispatch from Commodore Stock- 
ton, which was written in 1848, and gives a very 
detailed account of his movements after taking com- 
mand of the Pacific fleet in July, 1846. 

In pei'using this dispatch, the reader is requested to 
note those passages in which the commodore discusses 
certain difierences between himself and General Kear- 
ney, in regard to their respective powers — differences 



162 LIFK AND BEKVICKS OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

whicli resulted in Mr. Fremont's abandoning the army 
as a profession, the following year. It should also be 
borne in mind, that this dispatch is in some sort the 
commodore's defence of himself, inasmuch as he was 
necessarily implicated in the guilt of issuing any orders 
which it was unlawful for another party to obey.* 

KEPORT OF COMMODORE STOCKTON OF HIS OPERATIONS ON THE 
COAST OF THE PACIFIC.f 

" Washington, D. C, February 18, 184S. 

"Sir: On my return from California in November last, the 
circumstances of the times seemed to present reasons for delay- 
ing a full report of my transactions and operations on the coast 
of the Pacific. 

"The authority under which I had acted was questioned or 
denied ; the validity of much that had been done was doubted, 
and investigations were on foot in which the propriety of my 
proceedings might be brought to the especial notice of the 
Executive. 

" After a full consideration of the circumstances, to which it is 
unnecessary here further to allude, it appeared to me decorous 
and respectful, to withhold, for a brief period, ray own views of 
the questions in which I was to some extent implicated, and to 
leave the Executive to learn the details of those transactions 

*In a communication addresssed to the court-martial by which Col. 
Fremont was subsequently tried for disobeying orders of Gen. Kearney 
in conflict with orders he had previously received with a commission, 
from Commodore Stockton, the commodore, in explaining the testimony 
whu;h he had given before the court, i-emarks : "For each and every 
of the acts of Lieut. Col. Fremont, performed under my authority and 
in obedience to my orders, I cannot but feel that in some form or other I 
am responsible, if the acts were in themselves illegal or in the execution 
of them, criminal." 

•j- From Executive Document No. 1, accompanying the President's 
message at the 2nd Session of the Thirtieth Congress, December, 1848. 



CONQUEST OF GALIFOBNIA COMPLETED. 163 

from other quarters. The period, however, has now arrived in 
■which I feel that I can, without the imputation of improper 
feelino-s or motives, lay before the Executive, in a tangible and 
official form, a narrative of the occurrences which I directed in 
California; explain the circumstances wihch induced the course 
which I pursued, the motives by which I was guided, the objects 
which I designed to accomplish, and thus to put the President 
in possession of ample means to form a judgment upon my con- 
duct. It appears now to be no longer questioned that I actually 
possessed and exercised the power of governor of California and 
commander-in-chief of the forces of the United States in that 
quarter, and that, whether rightfully or wrongfully, I executed 
the duties and administered the functions appertaining to these 
high offices, for the administration of which I am alone responsi- 
ble. The dispatches which were from time to time addressed to 
the Department were designed to furnish the government with 
accurate information of what transpired ; but, under the circum- 
stances in which they were prepared, it did not enter into my 
purpose to give a general narrative of the entire operations. 
Opening a full view of the circumstances which influenced my 
judgment in selecting the course which was adopted, and the 
policy by which that course was determined, with your permis- 
sion T beg leave, at this time, to perform this duty ; the obliga- 
tions to do which, at this juncture, seem to me more imperative, 
since it appears that in an official communication addressed to 
the Department by my successor in command, I am in the most 
explicit terms censured for premature as well as injudicious 
action. With what of propriety or of professional courtesy this 
condemnation has been passed by an officer of equal rank with 
myself, without any report or communication to him of what 
had occurred, or the reasons by which I was governed, is not so 
apparent. Under the instructions from the Department, I 
arrived, in command of the United States Frigate Congress, at 
the harbor of Monterey, about the middle of July, 1846. The 
American flag was there flying. I immediately went on board 



164 LITE AND SERVICES OF J.OHN C. FKEMONT. 

the United States frigate Savannah, then lying off that town 
and, in conformity with my orders, T reported myself to Com 
modore Sloat as forming part of the Squadron then under his 
command. From him I learned that in the preceding month of 
June, while h'ing ofl" Mazatlan, he had received intelligence that 
war had commenced between the United States and Mexico ; 
that he had forthwith proceeded to Monterey, landed a force, 
and hoisted the flag of the United States without resistance. In 
the course of our interview. Commodore Sloat apprised me of 
his intention to return in a short time to the United States, 
whereby the command of the squadron would devolve upon me. 
In this position it became my duty to examine into the state of 
afl^airs, and, in view of the responsibility which was about to 
rest upon me, to obtain all the information which would enable 
me to exercise a proper judgment as to the ulterior measures to 
be pursued. The result of my inquiries and investigationf 
showed me that the position I was about to occupy was as 
important and critical one. The intelligence of the commence- 
ment of hostilities between the two nations, although it had 
passed through Mexico, had reached Commodore Sloat in advance 
of the Mexican authorities. When he made his first hostile demon- 
strations, therefore, the enemy, ignorant of the existence of the 
war, had regarded his acts as an unwarrantable exercise of power 
by the United States, and the most lively indignation and bitter 
resentment pervaded the country. 

"The public functionaries of the territory were not slow in 
availing themselves of this feeling, and endeavored to stimulate 
it to the highest possible degree. A proclamation was put forth, 
denouncing in the most unmeasured terms all foreigners; but it 
was unquestionably aimed principally at the citizens of the United 
States, and such others as sympathized with them. Two or 
three were, in fact, murdered, and all were led to apprehend 
extermination from the sanguinary feeling of resentment whic, 
was everywhere breathed. 

" The local legislature was in session. Governor Pio Pico had 



1" 



^ 



CONQUEST OF CALIFOKNIA COMPLETED. 165 

assembled a force of about seven hundred or one thousand men, 
supplied with seven pieces of artiller}^ breathing vengeance 
against the perpetrators of the insult and injury which they sup- 
posed to have been inflicted. These hostile demonstrations were 
daily increasing, and by the time that the command devolved 
on me by the departure of Commodore Sloat, the situation of 
things had assumed a critical and alarming appearance. Every 
citizen and friend of the United States throughout the territory 
was in imminent jeopardy ; he could count upon no security for 
either property or life. It was well known that numerous emi- 
grants from the United States were on their way to Upper Cali- 
fornia. These, marching in small and detached parties, encum- 
bered with their wives and children and baggage, uninformed 
of the war and consequently unprepared for attack, would have 
been exposed to certain destruction. 

" It was also ascertained that, in the anticipation of the event- 
ful conquest of the country by the United States, many of those 
in the actual possession of authority were preparing for this 
change by disposing of the public property, so that it might be 
found in private hands when the Americans should acquire pos- 
session, believing that private rights Avould be protected and 
individual property secure. Negotiations were in actual progress 
thus to acquire three thousand leagues of land, and to dispose of 
all the most valuable portions of the territory appertaining to 
the missions at nominal prices, so that the conquerors should 
find the entire country appropriated to individuals, and in hands 
■\vhich could effectually prevent sales to American citizens, and 
thus check the tide of emigration, whi'e little or no benefit 
would result to the nation from the acquisition of this valuable 
territorv. 

"All these considerations, together with others of inferior 
moment, seemed to make prompt and decisive action an impera- 
tive duty. To retain possession merely of a few seaports, while 
cut off" from all intercourse with the interior, exposed to constant 
attack by the concentrated forces of an exasperated enemy, 



166 LIFE Ai^D SERVICES OF JOHN C. FKEMONl. 

appeared wholly useless. Yet to abandon ground which we 
1 ad occupied, to withdraw our forces from these points, to yield 
l)laces where our flag had been floating in triumph, was an 
alternative not to be thought of, except as a last resource. Not 
only would all the advantages which had been obtained be thus 
abandoned, and perhaps never be regained without great expen- 
diture of blood and treasure, but the pride and confidence of the 
enemy would be increased to a dangerous extent by such indica- 
tions of our weakness and inability to maintain what we had 
won. 

" Previous to the departure of Commodore Sloat, he had, 
at my instance, and upon my representations, placed at my 
disposal the United States sloop-of-war Cyaue, as well as the 
forces on shore. I immediately apprised Captain Fremont, then 
of the topographical corps, with whom I had previous communi- 
cations, of the position in which I was placed, and that I had 
letermined upon my plan of operations. 

" Captain Fremont and Lieutenant Gillespie, of the marine 
corps, had already raised a body of 160 volunteers, prepared to 
act according to circumstances. I informed those gentlemen 
that if they, together with the men whom they had raised, wo«ild 
volunteer to serve under my command so long as I should remain 
in California and require their services, that I would form them 
into a battalion, appointing the former major and the latter cap- 
tain. These arrangements were all completed in the course of 
the 23d of July, and my letters of that date to Commodore Sloat, 
to Commander Du Pont, and Captain Fremont, on the file itti| 
the Department, will have apprised you of my movements. 

"It was thus that the battalion of California volunteers was' 
organized, which subsequently, under its gallant ofiicers, took so-J 
patriotic and efficient a part in the military operations in that- 
territory. It was received into the service of the United States 
to aid the navy, as essential as well to the maintenance of the 
position we then occupied as to execute the plans which I had 
contemplated in the interior. 



CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA COMPLETED, 167 

"A few days subsequently, Commodore Sloat sailed in the 
Levant, thus devolving upon me the command of the entire 
force, both afloat and on shore. That force then consisted of 
the frigates Congress and Savannah, sloops-of-war Portsmouth., 
Cyane. and Warren, and the store-ship Erie. The Portsmouth 
was at San Francisco, the Congress and Savannah at Monterey, 
the Cyane had been sent vi'ith the California battalion to San 
Diego, the Warren was at Mazatlan, and the Erie at the Sand- 
wich Islands. The force to be employed on land consisted of 
360 men, furnished from the Congress, provided with about 90 
muskets and bayonets, some small cannon procured from the 
merchant-vessels, and the battalion of volunteers, all indifferently 
provided with the appendages of an army. 

"Leaving the Savannah at Monterey, for its protection, I 
sailed about the first of August, in the Congress, for San Pedro. 
This town is situated about 28 miles from Ciudad de los Angeles, 
in the vicinity of which the enemy was stated to be. On the 
way to San Pedro, we landed at Santa Barbara, of which we 
took possession, and, leaving a small force for its defence, pro- 
ceeded to San Pedro, where we arrived on the 6th of August. 
Here information was received of the arrival of the Cyane at 
San Diego, of the landing of the battalion, and supply of horses. 
We immediately commenced the landing of oar forces from the 
frigate. On the- following day two persons arrived representing 
themselves to be commissioners sent from General Castro, 
authorized to enter into negotiations with me, and bearing a 
letter from the general, which is already in possession of the 
Department. Before, however, they would communicate the 
extent of their power or the nature of their instructions, they 
made a preliminary demand that the further march of the troops 
must be arrested, and that I must not advance beyond the posi- 
tion which I then occupied. This proposition was peremptorily 
declined. I announced my determination to advance ; and the 
commissioners returned to their camp without imparting further 
the objects of the proposed negotiations. 

» 4: * * >|: * « 



168 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FKEMOXT. 

Having completed all the arrangements which time and cir- 
cumstances permitted, and dispatched a courier to Major 
Fremont, apprising him of my movements, we commenced our 
march towards the camp of the enemy on the 11th of August. 
In the course of the afternoon of that day information reached 
us that the enemy's force, instead of awaiting our approach, had 
dispersed ; that they had buried their guns, and that the 
governor and general had retreated, as was supposed, towards 
Sonora. We continued our march towards Ciudad de los 
Angeles, and on the 13th, having been joined by Major Fremont 
with about 120 volunteers under his command, we marched 
into the city, which we quietly occupied. 

"After the dispersement of the army of the enemy, the flight 
of the general and governor-in-eJiief out of the territory, a 
number of the officers of the Mexican army were captured and 
made prisoners of war. Among these were Jose Maria Flores, 
whose name hereafter will appear prominently, and Don Andres 
Pico, brother of Governor Pio Pico. These officers were released 
upon their parole of honor not to bear arms against the United 
States pending the war, unless exchanged ; with what of fidelity 
they performed this obligation will appear in the sequel. Tlie 
people in general came in, tendered their submission to our 
authority, and promised allegiance to our government. Every 
indication of a hostile force had now disappeared from the 
country, tranquillity was restored, and I forthwith determined to 
organize a temporary civil government to conduct public affairs 
and to administer justice as in time of peace. Various con- 
siderations prompted to this course. It appeared to ine that the ■ 
existence of such a government, under the authority of the|f 
United States, would leave no pretence upon which it might be 
urged that the conquest of the country had not been accom- 
plished. While merely the military power exercised power, 
enforcing its authority by martial law, and executing its func- 
tions through the instrumentality of a regular military force, 
nothing could be regarded as settled, and opposition to ita 



ii 



1 




■'Sr«f!::;;;1i;3gSi# 



CONQUEST OF CALIFOKNIA COMPLETED. 169 

power would be considered as a lawful opposition to a foreign 
enemy. When, however, the whole frame of civil administra- 
tion should be organized — courts and judges performing their 
accustomed functions — public taxes and imposts regularly col- 
lected and appropriated to the ordinary objects and purposes ol 
government — any opposidon might be justly deemed a civil 
offence, and the appropriate punishment inflicted in the ordinary 
course of administering justice. 

" Indeed, the law military appeared to me wholly inadequate 
to the emergency. It could not reach many of the objects over 
which a salutary control ought to be exercised. It could not 
effectively administer the property or sufficiently guard private 
rights. A civil government which should, through its various 
functionaries, pervade the entire country, exercise a superin- 
tendence over all the inhabitants, discover, restrain, and punish, 
all acts of insubordination, detect and check all attempts at a 
hostile organization, recognize and sanction the possession, use, 
and transfer of property, inflict upon criminals the appropriate 
punishment, and remedy injuries inflicted upon individuals, 
seemed not only an important instrument in the accomplishment 
of the objects which I had in view, but essential to the attain- 
ment of the ends of the government. It appeared to me desir- 
able that the actual possession and exercise of power should be 
transferred, with the least possible delay, from the military to 
civil functionaries. 

"Under our institutions the military is regarded as inferior 
to the civil authority, and the appropriate duty of the former is 
to act as auxiliary to the latter. Such being the general charac- 
ter of ouu institutions, it seemed in the first degree desirable 
that the inhabitants of the country should, as soon as practicable 
become fajniliar with them, that they might perceive and appre- 
ciate their importance and their value, their capacity to main- 
tain right and redress wrong, and, in the protection afforded to 
persons and property, to recognize a guarantee of all their indi- 
vidual rights. The marked contrast which would thus b« 



170 LIFE AND SEKVICES OF JOHN C. FKEMONT. 

afforded to their former institutions and rulers would reconcile 
the Mexican portion of the population to the change; while the 
American inhabitants would gratefully witness an administra- 
tion of law and justice analogous to that to which they had 
been accustomed at home. Actuated by such considerations, I 
gave my immediate attention to the establishment, upon a per- 
manent basis, of a civil government throughout the country, as 
much in conformity with the former usages of the country as 
could be done in the absence of any written code. A tariff of 
duties was fixed, and collectors appointed. Elections were 
directed to be held for the various civil magistrates ; Major 
Fremont was appointed military commandant of the territory, 
and Captain Gillespie military commandant of the southern 
department. The battalion of volunteers was ordered to be 
augmented to three hundred ; and, contemplating soon to leave 
the territory, I determined on my departure to appoint Major 
Fremont Governor of California. He was apprised of these 
intended arrangements, and instructed to meet me at San Fran- 
cisco on the 25th of October, for the purpose of consummating 
them. These acts and intentions were officially communicated 
to the Department in my several dispatches, 

"This exposition of my operations and acts will, I trust, prove 
satisfactory to the .Executive, and be a sufficient reply to Com- 
modore Shubrick's charge of premature action. In a state of 
actual war against a foreign enemy, I found myself at the head 
of a force and in command of means competent to take and 
hold possession of an important part of the hostile territory. I 
found that before the command had devolved upon me the flag 
of my country had been raised in some parts of California. 
Lnportant interests were involved ; to stop short would have 
led to their absolute sacrifice, accompanied by great individual 
loss and suffering. No middle course was open to my choice. 
The alternative was the subjection of the entire province to our 
authority, or its total abandonment. In such a position I could 
not hesitate as to the line of duty. Empowered to conduct the 



J 



CONQUEST OF CALIFOKNIA COMPLETED. 171 

war against Mexico according to the exigency of circumstances 
and my own judgment, I determined to support the honor of my 
flag and to promote what I regarded as the best interest of the 
nation. Having achieved the conquest of the country, and 
finding ray military strength ample to retain it, the establish- 
ment of a civil government naturally and necessarily resulted. 
The omission to do this would have marred the entire plan 
and stamped a character of imbecility and instability upon the 
whole operation. My views of the interests of my country were 
decisive ; as to the expediency of my measures, the estimate I 
entertained of my authority impressed upon them the sanction 
of duty. The arrangements having been thus completed, I 
determined to leave California under the administration of the 
civil authority, and with the squadron under my command, 
aided by a volunteer corps raised for the purpose, to sail for the 
southern part of Mexico, capture Acapulco, and, having secured 
proper positions on the coast, to march into the interior, advance 
towards the city of Mexico, and thus to co-operate with the 
anticipated movements of General Taylor, or produce a power- 
ful diversion which would materially aid him in his operations. 
My dispatches have already put the Department in possession 
of these plans, 

"About the 2d of September I left Ciudad de los Angeles, 
embarked on board the Congress on the 3d, and on the 5th 
sailed for Santa Barbara. Having taken on board the small 
detachment which had been landed at this place, we proceeded 
to Monterey, where everything was found tranquil. The people 
appeared to be quite satisfied with the state of aftaire. Informa- 
tion was here received leading to the apprehension that Sutter's 
settlement on the Sacramento was threatened with an attack by 
a body of one thousand Wah-lah-wah-lah Indians, The Savannah 
was immediately ordered to San Francisco ; Lieutenant Maddox, 
of the marine corpse, appointed military commandant of the 
middle department, and, other necessary arrangements having 
been made, I proceeded in the Congress to San Francisco, which 



172 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

place I reached in a few days. It soon appeared that the reports 
in regard to the Wah-lah-wah-Iah Indians had been greatly exag- 
gerated. They were not so numerous as had been represented, 
Lad they any hostile intentions. 

We deem it proper to interrupt the commodore's nar- 
rative at this point, for the purpose of giving Upham's 
fuller and more authentic account of this "VVah-lah-wah- 
lah insurrection, in the quieting of which Col. Fre- 
mont displayed a degree of judgment and discretion 
which Commodore Stockton does not seem to have 
had the means of appreciating. Mr. Upham says : * 

" At this time an additional panic arose from the 
report of an Indian invasion from the north. It was 
said that one thousand Wah-lah-wah-lahs were advanc- 
ing to attack Sutter's Fort. The whole country was 
aroused, and every element of disposable force was 
drawn out to meet the threatened danger. Fremont 
had ah'eady assembled a body of several hundi*ed west- 
ern riflemen towards the completion of his California 
battalion, when the news reached him. He was quite 
confident that the story was exaggerated ; but it was 
necessary to restore security in the northern frontier. 
He took three tried men with him, and went directly to 
meet the Wah-lah-wah-lahs. He found them much less 
numerous than had been represented, but assembled ioJ 
considerable force, and in a state of the greatest exas-] 
peration. He went, with his three men, directly into! 
their midst. One of them knew him, and all gathered] 
round him to tell their wrongs. They had been robbed, ' 
and one of their best young men killed, by the wliites. 
He promised them redress if they Avould follow his 
advice. He told them that he was going to the south, 

* Upham's Life of Fremont, p. 242. 



CONQUEST OF CALrFORNIA COMPLETED. 173 

and could not attend to them until the spring, but that 
lie would thou meet them, at a place agreed upon, and 
have justice done them. He advised them, in the mean 
time, to go off on a winter hunt — said that he would let 
one of his own men go with them, to hold over them the 
United States flag, and that whoever struck that flag 
struck him. They were perfectly subdued by his talk, and 
manner of treating them: at once gave up their plan of 
attacking the whites ; and agreed to go oif on a winter 
hunt. They gave him ten of their young braves to go 
with him, who proved themselves among the best in his 
battalion. In the spring of the year, he met them, 
although at a great inconvenience, and gave them of his 
own horses until they were satisfied. In this way he 
not only stopped an Indian war, and recruited his own 
ranks, but he taught a lesson which it would be well to 
have inculcated upon those who undertake to grapple 
with our Indian difficulties, and enforced upon the 
administration of that department of our government." 
The commodore continues : 

About the 30th of September, a courier arrived from Captain 
Gillespie, despatched by that officer to convey to me the infor- 
mation that an insurrection had broken out at Ciudad de los 
Angeles, and that he was besieged in the government-house at 
that place by a large force. I immediately ordered Capt. Mer- 
vine to proceed in the Savannah to San Pedro, for the purpose 
of affording aid to Captain Gillespie. Major Fremont was at 
Sacramento when the news of the insurrection reached him, and, 
having formed the determination to march against the insurgents 
with the force he could muster, amounting to about one hundred 
and twenty men, was preparing to move. I sent a request to him 
forthwith to join me at San Francisco with his command, and to 
bring with him as many saddles as he could procure. While 



174 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOUN C. I'REMONT. 

awaiting the arrival of Major Fremont I detached officers in 
various directions for the purpose of procuring vohmteers to join 
the battalion, and engaged the merchant-ship Sterling to take 
them down to Santa Barbara, 

"About the 12th of October, Major Fremont arrived at San 
Francisco, and immediately embarked on board the Sterling, 
■with about one hundred and sixty volunteers. He was directed 
to proceed to Santa Barbara, there to procure horses to march 
to Ciudad de los Angeles, while I, with the Congress, was to sail 
to San Pedro, and by that route advance towards the same point. 
The insurgents were represented to be encamped in the neigh- 
borhood of that city. The Congress and Sterling sailed in com- 
pany from San Francisco, but separated the same evening in a 
fog. Between San Francisco and Monterey we spoke a mer- 
chant-vessel from the latter port, with dispatches from Lieutenant 
Maddox, apprising me that Monterey was threatened with an 
attack, and that he was in want of immediate assistance. We 
ran into the Bay of Monterey, landed two officers with fifty men 
and some ordnance. Having thus strengthened that post, I pro- 
ceeded to San Pedro. On my arrival on that place, about the 
23d of October, I found the Savannah frigate. Captain Mervine 
informed me that Captain Gillespie, with the volunteers under 
his command, was on board his vessel, having left Ciudad de los 
Angeles, under a capitulation entered into with General Flores, 
the leader of the insurrection — one of the Mexican officers who, 
having been made prisoner of war, had been released on his 
parole. 

" Captain Mervine further informed me that, about two weeks 
before, he had landed with his sailors and marines for the pur- 
pose of marching in conjuntion with Captain Gillespie and his 
detachment of volunteers to Ciudad de los Angeles. He had 
not carried any artillery with him ; that about twelve miles from 
San Pedro he encountered a party of the insurgents with one 
piece of artillery ; a battle ensued ; that several charges had been 
Made upon the insurgents' gun, but it was impossible to capture 



CONQUEST OF CALIFOKNIA COMPLETED. 175 

it, as, whenever be approaclied, they bitched their horses to it 
and retreated. Having sustained a loss of several men killed 
and wounded, he retired with bis force and re-embarked. 

" Proper arrangements having been made during the night, in 
the morning we landed a strong force with several pieces of ar- 
tillery, once more hoisted the flag of the United States at San 
Pedro, and formed our camp there. The insurgent force in the 
vicinity was supposed to number about eight hundred men. Our 
authority was necessarily limited to the portion of territory in 
our actual possession or within the range of our guns. The in 
surgents, in the undisturbed occupancy of the interior, and 
watchful of our every movement, could, at their pleasure, 
threaten us with an attack by night or day, and had the precau- 
tion to remove beyond our reach every horse and all the cattle 
which might have been available either for food or trans- 
portation. 

" The roadstead at San Pedro was also a dangerous position for 
men-of-war, being exposed to the storms which at that season of 
the year rage with great violence upon the coast. 

" This consideration decided me to proceed to San Diego, which, 
although the entrance was obstructed by a bar which had never 
been passed by a vessel of equal draught of water with the 
Congress, might, I hoped, be crossed ; and, if the passage should 
prove practicable, would be found a convenient and safe harbor. 
We did not, however, leave San Pedro until I had been 
compelled to relinquish all expectation of the co-operation of 
Major Fremont from whom I bad not heard a word since we 
parted off San Francisco, nor until the officers and men had 
become completely exhausted by their incessant duties on sh5re, 
in guarding the camp from attack and pursuing small parties of 
the insurgents who approached us. Having embarked the men 
belonging to the squadron, and volunteers under Captain Gilles 
pie, I sailed for San Diego in the Congress. 

" On my arrival off tlie harbor of San Diego, I received infor- 
mation from Lieutenant Minor that the town was besieged by 



17C LITE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

the insurgents, that his stock of provisions was small, anJ. ttiat 
he was in the want of an additional force. He gave it as his 
opinion that the Congress might be got over the bar. In attempt- 
ing this, however, the ship struck, and her position was so dan- 
gci-OLis that we were compelled to return to the anchorage out 
side. 

"On the following day the Malek Adhel, a prize to the United 
States ship Warren, arrived from Monterey with dispatches from 
Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont. I thus received information from 
that oflBcer that on his way to Santa Barbara he met the 
merchant-ship Vandalia, from San Pedro, by whom he was in- 
formed of the state of affairs at the South ; that it would be 
impossible for him to procure horses at Santa Barbara, in conse- 
quence of which he had proceeded to Monterey, and would 
employ all diligence in preparing his force to march for Ciudad 
de los Angeles. 

" Lieutenant Minor was directed to send the ship Stonington, 
then lying in the harbor of San Diego, with as many volunteers 
as could be spared, to Ensanado, about ninety miles below San 
Diego, for the purpose of procuring animals, which he was in- 
structed to have driven into San Diego. Without a supply of 
horses and beeves, it was not prudent to commence our march. 
Captain Mervine was dispatched in the Savannah to Monterey, 
to aid Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont in his preparations to march, 
and, having myself gone tp San Pedro, returned with all conve- 
nient speed to San Diego. 

" About thirty or forty miles from that place, our progress was 
arijested by a calm. My anxiety on account of Lieutenant-Colo- 
nel Fremont, and my desire to go to his assistance was so great, 
that a boat was immediately dispatched with Lieutenant Tilgh- 
man, the bearer of a communication addressed to Lieutenant 
George Minor, in command at San Diego, apprising that oflScer 
that on my arrival I would be ready to take the field in person, 
and with an additional force of two hundred and fifty men from 
the ship, to take up the line of march for Ciudad de los Angeles. 



CONQUEST OF OALIFOKNIA COMPLETED 177 

.lieutenant Minor was directed to arrange with Lieutenant 
rilgbman, the commanding officer of the artillery, and Mr. 
Southwiek, commanding oflicer of the engineers, to have the 
horses necessary for the transportation of the guns and ammuni- 
tion. 

" Notwithstanding my first unsuccessful attempt to get into 
the harbor of San Diego, it was an object of too great impor- 
tance to be abandoned, unless from the absolute impossibility of 
efi'ecting it. The bar and channel were again, on my return? 
examined and buoyed, and a second attempt made. After cross- 
ing the bar, the ship grounded, and in such a situation that it 
became expedient to prepare her spars to shore her up, to pre- 
vent her from tumbling over. While thus occupied, the insur- 
gents commenced an attack upon the town, and, notwithstanding 
the perilous condition of the frigate, and the necessity of employ- 
ing the crew in extricating her from her position, a portion of 
them was simultaneously engaged in landing from the ship, in 
boats, to take part in the fight. In executing iny orders in 
reference to those two distinct objects at the same time, the con- 
duct of the officers and men under my command was such as to 
command my warmest commendation. Everything was per- 
formed with the regularity and order of the ordinary duties of 
tlie vessel. Having accomplished a landing of the men from the. 
ship, the attack of the insurgents was successfully repelled by 
the combined force under the command of Lieutenant Minor and 
Captain Gillespie. 

" The situation of the place was found to be most miserable 
and deplorable. The male inhabitants had abandoned the'town, 
leaving their women and children dependent upon us for protec- 
tion and food. No horses could be obtained to assist in the 
transportation of the guns and ammunition, and not a beef 
could be had to supply the necessary food ; some supplies of pro- 
visions were furnished from the ship. The expedition to the 
southward for animals, under the command of Captain Gibson, 

8* 



178 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

of the battalion, had succeeded in driving about ninety horses, 
and two hundred head of beef-cattle into the garrison. 

" The horses were, however, much worn down, and it was sup- 
posed a fortnight's rest would be required before they would be 
fit for service. During the time required for resting the horses, 
we were actively employed in the construction of a fort, for the 
more complete protection of the town, mounting guns, and in 
making the necessary harness, saddles, and bridles. While the 
work of preparation necessary for our march to meet Lieutenant- 
Colonel Fremont at Ciudad de los Angeles was thus going on, 
we sent an Indian to ascertain where the principal force of the 
insurgents was encamped. lie returned with information that a 
body of them, about fifty strong, was encamped at San Ber- 
nardo, about thirty miles from San Diego. Captain Gillespie 
was immediately ordered to have as many men as he could 
mount, with a piece of artillery, ready to march, for the purpose 
of surprising the insurgents in their camp. Another expedition, 
under the command of Captain Hensley, of the battalion, was 
sent to the southward for animals, who, after performing the 
most arduous service, returned with five hundred head of cattle, 
and one hundred and forty horses and mules. About the 3d of 
December, two desertei's from the insurgents, whose families 
lived in San Diego, came into the place, and reported themselves 
to Lieutenant Minor, the commander of the troops. On receiv- 
ing information of the fact, I repaired to Lieutenant Minor's 
quarters, with my aid-de-camp. Lieutenant Gray, for the purpose 
of examining one of these men. While engaged in this exami- 
nation, a messenger arrived with a letter from General Kearney, 
of the United States army, apprising me of his approach, and 
expressing a wish that I would open a communication with him, 
and inform him of the state of afi'airs in California. 

" Captain Gillespie was immediately ordered to proceed to 
General Kearney's camp, with the force which he had been 
directed to have in readiness, carrying a letter which I wrote to 



CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA COMPLETED. 179 

General Kearney. Captain Gillespie left San Diego at about 
half-past seven o'clock the same evening, taking with him one 
of the deserters to act as a guide in conducting General Kearney 
to the camp of the insurgents. The force which accompanied 
Captain Gillespie consisted of a company of volunteers, composed 
of Acting Lieutenant Beale, Passed Midshipman Duncan, ten 
carbineers from the Congress, Captain Gibson, and twenty-five 
of the California battalion. Mr. Stokes, who was the bearer of 
the letter from General Kearney, was also of the company. In 
the evening of December 6th, Mr. Stokes returned to San Diego, 
to inform me that General Kearney, on the morning of that day, 
had attempted to surprise the insurgents, under the command of 
Captain Andres Pico, in their camp at San Pasqual ; that he 
bad been worsted in the action which ensued, but to what extent 
he was unable to say, as he had left the field before the battle 
was concluded. He^ however, was under the impression that 
General Kearney had lost a number of men, killed and 
wounded. 

" The following morning. Lieutenant Godey, of the California 
battalion, with two men, came into San Diego with a letter from 
Captain Turner, of the dragoons, informing me that General 
Kearney had had a fight with a considerable body of the Mexi- 
cans ; that he had about eighteen killed, and fourteen or fifteen 
wounded; and suggesting the pi'opriety of dispatching, without 
delay, a considerable force to his assistance. Preparations were 
immediately made to dispatch a detachment for this purpose. 
Captain Turner had not mentioned the strength on either side, 
and Lieutenant Godey was not able to inform me. From the 
information, however, I deemed it advisable to proceed in per- 
son, with all the force that could be spared from the garrison, to 
form a junction with him. Two days' provisions were orcered 
to be prepared, and the advance, with two field-pieces, under 
Acting Lieutenant Guest, was directed to march forthwith to the 
mission of San Diego, where it was my intention to join it with 
the rest of the force the next morning. Before, however, the 



180 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

advance had moved, an Indian came in from General Kearney. 
From the information lie gave, I judged that the necessity for 
immediate assistance was much more urgent than had been pre- 
viously supposed. Anticipating great difficulty and delay from 
the want of animals to drag the artillery, should I march with 
my entire force, and believing, from the representations now 
made, that the force of the Californians was less than had been 
supposed, and consequently, that a portion of my command 
would be sufficient for the purpose, I determined not to move in 
person, but to send on, as rapidly as possible, an effective body 
of men. About ten o'clock at night. Acting Lieutenant Beale, 
of the Congress, arrived from General Kearney's camp, and con- 
firmed the worst accounts we had received, and the importance 
of prompt assistance. The advanced body, increased to the 
number of 215 men, was placed under the command of Lieute- 
nant Gray, ray aid-de-camp, with orders to proceed directly to 
the camp of General Kearney. The order was successfully per- 
formed, and Lieutenant Gray having accomplished it, returned 
to San Diego, accompanied by the general. On their arrival. 
General Kearney, his officers and men, were received by all the 
garrison in the kindest and most respectfid manner. So far as 
my observation extended, no civility or attention was omitted. 
Having sent with Captain Gillespie every horse that was fit for 
use to General Kearney, I was without one for my own accommo- 
dation. I was therefore compelled, on foot, to advance and 
receive the general, whom I conducted to my own quarters, 
until others more agreeable to him could be prepared. The 
arrival of General Kearney was to me a source of gratification, 
although it was my decided opinion — which as yet I have seen 
no reason to change — that, under the circumstances that existed, 
I was entitled to retain the position in which I was placed of 
commander-in-chief; yet, in consideration of his high standing 
in the army, his long experience as a soldier, the importance of 
military science and skill in the movements that were to be 
made in the interior of the country, I immediately determined 



CONQUEST OF CAXIFORNIA COMPLETED. 181 

to yield all personal feelings of ambition, and to place in his 
hands the supreme authority. In accordance with this determi- 
nation, I tendered to General Kearney the position of comman- 
der-in-chief, and offered to accompany him as his aid. 

" This proposition was on more than one occasion renewed, 
and with all sincerity and singleness of purpose. The responsi- 
bility of moving from San Diego, and leaving the safety of the 
ships, deprived of so large and efficient a portion of their crews, 
was of itself a momentous one. This, however, in the discharge 
of duty, I felt no inclination to shrink from. But the fate of 
the territory itself might depend upon the issue of a battle to 
be fought on shore against an army organized to encounter us. 
The nature of the service and the importance of the stake, it 
seemed to me, appertained rather to a general in the army than 
a captain in the navy. Whatever ambition I might feel for dis- 
tinction, either on my account or on that of the gallant officers 
and men under my command, was voluntarily and deliberately 
offered as a sacrifice to a paramount sense of duty. The offers 
thus made were, however, on every occasion distinctly and pos- 
itively declined by General Kearney, who, on his side, offered to 
accompany me in the capacity of my aid, and tendered to afford 
me the aid of his head and hand. 

" A day or two after his arrival at San Diego, General Kearney 
removed from my quarters to others which at his instance had 
been provided for his accommodation. Before leaving, however, 
he handed me his instructions from the War Department. On 
reading them, I came to the conclusion that he had submitted 
them to my perusal to afford me the gratification of perceiving 
how entirely I had anticipated the views of the government in 
the measures which I had adopted. In return, I exhibited some 
of my own dispatches to the Department. Subsequently, and 
before leaving San Diego, General Kearney mentioned the sub- 
ject of his mstructions from the War Department, and seemed 
to intimate that he ought of right to be the governor of the 
territorv. His language, however, though perhaps suflBciently 



182 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

explicit, was not very intelligible to me, as I was at a loss to 
reconcile the assertion of such a claim of right with his repeated 
refusal to accept the offer, which I had more than once made to 
him, to devolve upon him the supreme command in the terri- 
tory. The subject, however, was discussed between us without 
any interruption of that harmony which had commenced on our 
first interview. 

" A few days before I expected to take up the line of march, I 
addressed a note to the general, expressing a wish that he 
would accompany me. In his reply he repeated the language 
which he had before employed — that he would so accompany 
me, and afford me the aid of his head and hand. Accordingly, 
on the morning of our departure he appeared upon the ground. 
After the troops had been paraded, and w^ere nearly ready to 
commence the march, as I was about to mount my horse, Gen- 
eral Kearney approached me and inquired who was to command 
the troops, 1 replied. Lieutenant Rowan was to have the com- 
mand. On his expressing a wish that he should himself com- 
mand them, I replied, that he should have the command. The 
different officers were at once convened, and informed that Gen- 
eral Kearney had volunteered to cpmmand the troops, and that 
I had given him the appointment, reserving my own position as 
commander-in-chief. This arrangement having been made, we 
proceeded on the march. 



" On the morning of the day we marched into Ciudad de los 
Angeles, General Kearney came to me with Mr. Southwick, who 
w"as acting as engineer, to ascei'tain from me by what road I 
intended to enter the city. He requested Mr. Southwick to 
mark on the sand the position of the city, and the different roads 
leading into it. I selected the plainest and broadest road, lead- 
ing into the main street of the city ; and when we marched into 
the city, I led the way with the advance-guard. My position as 
commander-in-chief was again distinctly recognized in a letter 



CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA COMPLETED. 183 

of January 13, addressed to me by General Kearney, as Gov- 
ernor of California, commanding United States forces. 

A few days after we had taken Ciudad de los Angeles, Lieut. 
Colonel Fremont arrived with his part of the battalion. 

" With the firm convictions which existed upon my mind as 
to my rights and authority as commander-in-chief, and the obli- 
gations which all officers and men under my command were 
under to obey implicitly all my orders, I should not only have 
felt it to be my right, but a matter of imperative duty, to assert 
and maintain my authority, if necessary, by a resort to force. I 
continued this exercise of the power of commander-in-chief 
without its having been denied or questioned by any person, as 
far as I was informed, up to the 16th of January, when I received 
a letter of that date from General Kearney, which is now on 
file in the Department, in which he demands that I will cease 
all further proceedings relating to the formation of a civil gov- 
ernment for the territory. In my reply of the same date to that 
letter (which, I think, is also on file in the Department), I sus- 
pended General Kearney from his volunteer command under 
me, when he again became Brigadier-General Kearney, over 
whom I never attempted or desired to have any command or 
control. 

" I exercised no authority in the territory after I left San 
Diego, except that which was induced by the receipt of a letter 
from Lieutenant-Colonel Cook, informing me that he had 
received information that a French schooner had been landing 
some guns on the Southern coast, and that General Bustamente, 
with 1,500 Mexicans, was approaching the territory. I wrote to 
Lieutenant-Colonel Cook that I would go in search of them as 
soon as possible. I went down the coast 120 miles, landed and 
mounted some of my men, and went in pursuit. It turned out 
to be a false alarm. After performing this last service in Cali- 
fornia, I returned, via San Diego and Monterey, to San Fran- 
cisco, where I gave up the command of the frigate Congress, 



184 LIKE AND SKKVICE8 OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

and returned to the United States by way of the Rocky Moun- 
tains. 

" Tlie California battalion (Fremont's) was organized under 
my own personal direction and authority, under a special condi- 
tion that it should act under my orders as long as I miglit 
remain in California and require its services. It was paid by 
ray orders, as long as I had anything to pay with. The officers 
derived their appointments exclusively from me. It was never, 
in any form or manner, mustered into the service of the United 
States as a part of the army or connected with it. It was exclu- 
sively and essentially a navy organization. The battalion was 
entirely composed of volunteers, organized under my authority, 
but with their own free consent, according to the terms of a dis- 
tinct and specific agreement to obey my orders and to serve 
while I should require their services. These men were not of 
that kind of personnel which sometimes composes regular armies : 
they were principally free American citizens who had settled in 
California ; they were men of respectability, of influence, and 
of property ; they Avere no ordinary men, because, when told 
that I had offered them as pay ten dollars a month, they said 
that they would not accept that pay — that it would not pay 
their expenses — but that they would volunteer to serve under 
my command without compensation. 

" This was the origin, character, and position of the battalion 
when engaged, in co-operation with the squadron under my 
command, in accomplishing the objects which I had in view. 

" Such was the posture of things when General Kearney arrived 
in California, and when he joined me in San Diego. He 
brought with him a very inconsiderable force, wholly insuffi- 
cient of itself to accomplish the important objects of tranquilizing 
the province and subjecting it to the authority of the Union, by 
the suppression of the insurrection which had been organized for 
the purpose of recovering the positions we occupied, overthrowing 
the government we had organized, and expelling us from the 



'S 1 1 

m 



CONQUEST OF CALIFOKNIA COlfPLETED. 185 

country, if, indeed, it had proved itself able to defend itself 
without our aid. ***** 

"The battalion was never placed under the command of 
General Kearney by me, arid was not subjected to his orders. 
It still remained in immediate subordination to me and to my 
authority. Up to the period last mentioned, — viz.: the date of 
our occupation of Ciudad de los Angeles, the only authority 
which General Kearney had exercised, while he accompanied 
me, was simply that authority which he had asked me to give 
him, and which he had voluntarily accepted at my hands. 

"No one has ever pretended — I certainly never claimed — 
that I possessed any right or authority to command General 
Kearney as such. All the power which I ever claimed or 
exercised over him was derived from his volunteering to aid me 
and to act under my orders. This connection, being purely one 
created by mutual consent, was, at any time, dissoluble at the 
will of either of the parties. As I could not originally have 
compelled General Kearney to assume the position he held, 
neither had I any authority to detain him in it one moment 
against his inclination. He might, at any time, have laid down 
his character as a volunteer under me, and resumed his official 
rank and rights as brigadier-general in the army of the United 
States. 

"In his capacity of brigadier-general, however, he had no 
authority to command me or any portion of my force. I was as 
independent of him as he confessedly was of me. If the force 
which I had brought ashore from the squadron constituted a 
portion of the navy — if the California battalion, which I had 
raised and organized, was ever rightfully subject to my orders — 
both were as independent of General Kearney, or any other 
officer of the army, as I myself was, 

" Nor have I ever questioned, much less denied, the authority 
of General Kearney to assume command over and give his orders to 
Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont. He might, at any time, without 
my controverting his power, have directed Lieutenant-Colonel 



186 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

Fremont to leave my command, to terminate his connection 
with me as a volunteer -under my command, and to report to 
him for orders. With any such exercise of authority I should 
never have interfered ; whether rightfully or wrongfully exercised 
was not for me to judge. That was a matter dependent upon 
the relative rights and duties of the parties themselves, as fixed 
by the military law, and to be decided by military authority. 

I did, however, and do still, deny that General Kearney, while 
occupying the position of volunteer under my command, had 
any authority whatever, as brigadier-general, over any portion 
of the forces serving under me. I deny that after the character 
of volunteer was laid, down, and that of brigadier-general 
resumed, he had, as such, any authority, nor could the Secretary 
of War give him any such authority over any portion of the 
force which I had organized. Whatever authority he might 
lawfully exercise over Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont personally, I 
deny that it reached to the battalion organized under me and 
by me placed under the command of that officer. And, finally, 
I deny that General Kearney could rightfully control me in my 
conduct as governor of California, more especially after having 
explicitly refused to accept the supreme authority when volun- 
tarily tendered to him. 

" I have the honor to be, faithfully, 

" Your obedient servant, 

"R. F. SrocKTOir. 
"To the Hon. John Y. Mason, 

" Secretary of the Navy, Washington, D. C." 

All that remains to be told of tlie conquest of Cali- 
fornia by Col. Fremont, is given with sufficient minute- 
ness in the following extract from Mr. Upham's 
memoir : 

"On the 27th of December, the battalion 'entered 
without resistance the town of Santa Barbara, where it 
remained recruiting until the 3d of January, 184:7. On 



i 



CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA COMPLETED. 187 

the lltli of January, while pursuing their march, thej 
were met by two Californians, riding in great haste, 
bareheaded, who informed them that the American 
forces, under Commodore Stockton, had retaken Los 
Angeles, after a victorious engagement with the insur- 
gent forces. The enemy's force was understood to be 
in the vicinity, and the next day two California officers 
came into camp to treat for peace. After full consulta- 
tion, articles were agreed upon on the 13th of January, 
1847. They stipulated that all California should deli- 
ver up their arms, return peaceably to their homes, not 
take up arms again during the war between the United 
States and Mexico, and assist and aid in keeping the 
country in a state of peace and tranquillity. Any Cali- 
fornian or citizen of Mexico, who might desii'e to do so, 
was permitted to leave the country, and none be 
required to take the oath of allegiance to the United 
States, until a treaty of peace should be signed and 
made between the United States and Mexico. The 
articles of capitulation were signed by officers duly 
commissioned for the purpose, and approved by ' J. C. 
Fremont, Lieutenant-Colonel U. S. Army, and Military 
Commandant of California, and Andres Pico, Comman- 
dant of Squadron and Chief of the National forces of 
California.' 

" This was the ' Capitulation of Couenga.' It teiTai- 
nated the war so far as California was concerned. No 
hostile arm was ever again lifted, except in the ordinary 
form of local Lidian outbreaks, within the limits of that 
State, against the authority of the United States. It 
secured reconciliation as well as peace. It is in evi- 
dence, on the records of the government, that the .final 
conquest of California could not have been accomplished 



188 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

by any force then on the Pacific coast, without the aid 
of the California battalion; and that, had it not been 
consummated by the Treaty of Couenga, a 'bloody, 
vexatious, and predatory warfare,' would surely have 
been protracted for an indefinite length of time. The 
whole western slope of the Sierra Nevada would have 
afforded safe retreats, inaccessible to naval and even 
regular military forces, from which ravaging parties 
would have rushed down upon the plains, and where 
insurrectionary movements would have been fomented 
perpetually. Fremont terrified the Californians and 
the Indians by the celerity and boldness of his move- 
ments, and he conquered their hearts by the good con- 
duct of his men, and the moderation and clemency of 
his policy." 

In a dispatch from General Kearney, to the War De- 
partment at Washington, dated Ciudad de los Angeles, 
January, 14th, ISiT, he says : 

"This morning, Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont, of the regiment 
of mounted ritlemen, reached here with four hundred volunteers 
from the Sacramento ; the enemy capitulated with him yester- 
day, near San Fernando, agreeing to lay down their arms, and 
we have now the prospect of having peace and quietness in this 
country, which I hope may not be interrupted again." 



STOCKTON AND KEAENET. 189 



CHAPTER IX. 

ORIGIN OF THE CONTROVERSY BETWEEN COLONEL FREMONT 

AND GENERAL KEARNEY IS ORDERED BY GENERAL 

KEARNEY NOT TO RE-ORGANIZE THE CALIFORNIA BAT- 
TALION HIS REPLY GENERAL KEARNEY CLAIMS THE 

COMMAND OF THE CALIFORNIAN ARMY — COMMODORE 
STOCKTON REFUSES TO YIELD IT — 'THEIR CORRESPON- 
DENCE NEW INSTRUCTIONS FROM WASHINGTON KEARNEY 

TAKES THE COMMAND FREMONT IS ORDERED HOME 

HOSTILE CORRESPONDENCE WITH COL. MASON ARRESTED 

AT FORT LEAVENWORTH INVITED TO A PUBLIC DINNER 

AT ST. LOUIS LETTER DECLINING THE INVITATION 

ARRIVES AT WASHINGTON. 

The differences between General Kearney and Commo- 
dore Stockton, alluded to in tlie foregoing dispatch, origin- 
ated primarily in the indefiniteness of the instructions 
which were issued from the seat of government. Those 
addressed to the naval commanders on the Pacific, in their 
judgment justified the organization of a military force and 
a civil government in California, and under those instruc- 
tions Commodore Stockton authorized Fremont to organ- 
ize the California battalion and take its command with the 
title of Major. By virtue of those, he likewise took the 
necessary steps for the organization of a civil govern- 



1-90 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

ment for California and invested Fremont with the title 
and responsibilities of Governor. 

As soon as these results were consummated, Kit 
Carson was sent with an escort of fifteen men to bear 
the intelligence overland to Washington, as soon as 
possible. Just as he had crossed the desert and was 
approaching the American frontier, he was met by 
General Kearney with a small force of dragoons march- 
ing westward, under instructions from his government 
to conquer California and organize a civil government 
in the territory, a work which had already been success- 
fully accomplished. 

Upon learning what had occurred, Kearney insisted 
upon Carson's returning with him as his guide to. 
California, having, forwarded the dispatches to Wash- 
ington by another messenger of his own selection. 
Upon the general's arrival at Los Angeles, the capital 
of California, and the seat of the new government, 
the contest soon rose between himself and Commodore 
Stockton, which is referred to in the commodore's dis- 
patch. The process by which Colonel Fremont became 
involved in this controversy is obvious. He held a 
commission in the army as lieutenant of topographical 
engineers, and as such was primarily subject to the 
orders of his superior general ofiicer of the army. He 
had since yielded to the exigencies of the occasion, and 
from motives and for reasons which cannot be impeach- 
ed, waived any privileges he might have claimed, as the 
real conqueror of North California, and in point of rank, 
the superior representative of the army on the Pacific 
coast, and with his men, volunteered to serve under 
Commodore Stockton in the farther prosecution of the 
war in South California, the subjugation of which could 



STOCKTON AND KEARNEY. 191 

not be so successfully effected without the aid of a fleet. 
By accepting the governorship of California, a vacancy 
had been created in the command of the California 
battalion and other changes had become necessary. 
The first intimation which Colonel Fremont received of 
General Kearney's intention to test the validity of Com- 
modore Stockton's acts through him, was conveyed in 
the following note. 

" Headqcibtbrs, Akmt op the West, 1 
" CiCDAO DB LOS AsQELES, January 16, 1S47. ^ 

" By direction of Brigadier General Kearney, I send you a 
copy of a communication to him from the Secretary of War, 
dated June 18, 1846, in which is the following, 'These trocips 
and such as may be organized in California will be under your 
command.' The general directs that no change will be made in 
the organization of your battalion of volunteers or officers 
appointed in it, without his sanction or approval being first 
obtained. 

"Wm. F.Emory. 
" Lieutenant and Acting Assistant Adjutant General^ 

Tliis note at once raised the question whether he was to 
obey General Kearney, and thereby, so far as his example 
could go, invalidate the acts of Commodore Stockton, in 
which he had co-operated, or obey Commodore Stockton, 
and so far as his decision would go, sustain the 
validity of those proceedings which he believed to 
be both legal and patriotic. If he took the former 
course he incurred the liability to be arraigned and, in 
his judgment, justly disgraced for disobeying an officer 
whose rank and authority he had deliberately recogniz- 
ed ; and he further incurred the charge of base ingrati- 
tude towards an officer whose courtesy and confidence 



192 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

he had shared, whose conduct he had approved, and 
who unexpectedly found liimsclf in a situation to need 
the support of his friends. Fremont was incapable of 
deserting either a friend or what he deemed his post of 
duty ; he accordingly addressed to General Kearney 
the following reply on tlie following day : 

COL. FREMONT TO GENERAL KEARNEY. 

" ClODAD DB L08 Anqeles, Jcu. 17, 1847. 

"Sir : I have the honor to be in receipt of your favor of last 
night, in which I am directed to suspend the execution of orders 
which, in my capacity of military commandant of this territory, 
I had received from Commodore Stockton, governor and com- 
mander-in-chief, in California. I avail myself of an early hour 
this morning to make such a reply as the brief time allowed for 
reflection, will enable me. 

" I found Commodore Stockton in possession of the country, 
exercising the functions of military commandant and civil gov- 
ernor, as early as July of last year ; and shortly thereafter I 
received from him the commission of military commandant, the 
duties of which I immediately entered upon, and have continued 
to exercise to the present moment. 

" I found also, on my arrival at this place, some three or four 
days ince, Commodore Stockton still exercising the functions 
of civil and military governor, with the same appparent deference 
to his rank on the part of all officers (including yourself), as he 
maintained and required when he assumed them in July last. 

" I learned, also, in conversation with you, that on the march 
from San Diego, recently, to this place, you entered upon, and 
discharged duties implying an acknowledgment on your part, 
of supremacy to Commodore Stockton. 

" I eel, therefore, with gi-eat deference to your professional 
and personal character, constrained to say that, until you and 
Commodore Stockton adjust between yourselves, the question of 



STOCKTON AND KEi^ENET. 193 

rank, whero I respectfully think the difficulty belongs, I shall have 
to report and receive orders, as heretofore, from the commo- 
dore. 

" With considerations of high regard, I am, sir, your obedi 
ent servant, 

"J. C. Fremont, 
^^ Lieutenant- Colonel, U. S. Army, and Military 

" Commandant of the Territory of California^'* 
" Brigadier-General S. W, Kearney, 
" U. S. Army." 

Tlie same day that General Kearney addressed the 
note above quoted, to Mr. Fremont, a 3'et more serioua 
correspondence commenced between him and Commo- 
dore Stockton. We give it at length with the intro- 
ductory remarks of Commodore Stockton's biographer, 
who evidently wrote under the eye and approval of the 
commodore : 

" Fremont throughout the California war, was strictly and 
technically in the naval service, under Commodore Stockton. 
He had taken service under him with an express agreement that 
he would continue subject to his orders as long as he continued 
In command in Callifornia, This engagement both he and 
Captain Gillespie had entered into from patriotic motives, and 
to render the most efficient service to the country. He visited 
California originally upon topographical, and not on military 
duty. His volunteering under Stockton on special service, was 
a patriotic impulse, in complying with which the government 
were in honor bound to sustain him. He therefore, very pro- 
perly refused to violate h^ agreement with Stockton, and unite 
with Kearney against him. 

" Having failed to compel Fremont to acknowledge his autho- 
rity, the general addressed himself to the commodore and 
demanded that he should abdicate the coramand-in-chief, 

9 



194 LITE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FKEMONT. 

"The commodore considering the subjugation of California 
complete, and that no further hostilities were likely to take 
place, was of opinion that he might now relinquish his governor- 
ship, and command-in-chief, an.d return to his ships. But, hav- 
ing informed the government that upon that event he intended, 
to appoint Colonel Fremont governor, he now proceeded to 
carry that design into execution, 

"General Kearney, learning this to be the purpose of t?e 
commodore, and desirous of exercising the functions of governor 
himself, addressed to him the following letter, which, with the 
ensuing correspondence, will apprise the reader of the true rela- 
tions of the parties better than we could state them. 



GENERAL KEARliEY TO COMMODORE STOCKTON. 

" Hbadqcabtkrs, Arm? of the Wrst, ) 

•' CiUDAD DB LOS Akqelbs, January 16, 1 84T. ) 

" Sir : I am informed that you are now engaged in organ 
izing a civil government, and appointing officers for it in thia 
territory. As this duty has been specially assigned to myself, by 
orders of the President of the United States, conveyed in letters 
to me from the Secretary of War, of June 3, 8, and 18, 1846 ; 
the original of which I gave to you on the 12th, and which you 
returned to me on the 13th, and copies of which I furnished 
you with on the 26th December, I have to ask if you have 
any authority from the President, from the Secretary of the 
Navy, or from any other channel of the President, to form such 
government and make such appointments. 

" If you have such authority, and will show it to me or 
furnish me with a certified copy of it, T will cheerfully ac- 
quiesce in what you are doing. If you have not such autho- 
rity, I then demand that you cease all further proceedings 
relating to the formation o'' a civil government for this terri- 



STOCKTON AND KEAEiSrET. 195 

torr, as I cannot recognize in jou any rij^Lt in assuming to 
perform duties confided to me by the President. 
" Very respectfully your obedient servant, 

" S. W. Kearney, 
^^Brigadier-General, United States Army 
" Commodore R. F. Stockton, Acting Governor of California." 

COMMODORE STOCKTON TO GENERAL KEARNEY. 

#• 

" IIEADQUAKTKK3, ClUDAD DB LOS ANQELES, Jan. 18, 1847, 

" Sir : In answer to your note received this afterroon, I 
need say but little more than that which I communicated to y^^u 
in a conversation at San Diego — that California was conquered, 
and a civil government put into successful operation, that a copy 
of the laws made by me for the government of the territory^ 
and the names of the officers selected to see them faithfully exe- 
cuted, were transmitted to the President of the United States 
before you arrived in the territory. 

" I will only add, that I cannot do anything nor desist from 
doing anything on your demand, which I will submit to the 
President and ask for your recall. In the meantime you will 
consider yourself suspended from the command of the United 
States forces in this place. 

" Faithfully, your obedient servant, 

" R. F. Stockton, 
" Commander-in-chief, 

" To Brevet Brigadier-General S. W. Kearney." 



GENERAL KEARNEY TO COMMODORE STOCKTON. 

" ITKADQUARTERg, ArMT OF THK WbST, ) 
ClODAD DE LOS A>OELBSi TuTl. 17, 1847. > 

"Sir: In my communication to you of yesterday's date 1 
stated that I had learned that you were engaged in organizing 



196 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

a civil government for California. I referred you to the Presi- 
dent's instructions to me (the origin;)! of which you have seen) 
and copies of which I furnished you, to perform that duty, and 
I added that if you had any authority from the President, or 
any of his organs, for what you were doing, I would cheerfully 
acquiesce, and if you had not such authority I demanded that 
you would cease further proceedings in the matter. 

" Your reply of the same date refers me to a conversation 
held at San Diego, and adds that you cannot do anything or de- 
sist from doing anything or alt^r anything on your (my) demand. 
As, in consequence of the defeat of the enemy on the 8th and 
9th inst., by the the troops under mrj command, and the capitu- 
lation entered into on the 13th inst. by Lieutenant-Colonel 
Fremont with the leaders of the Californians, in which the 
people under arms and in the field agree to disperse and remain 
quiet and peaceable, the country may now, for the first time, be 
considered as conquered, and taken possession of by us ; and as 
I am prepared to carry out the President's instructions to me, 
which you oppose, I must, for the purpose of preventing a col- 
lision between us and possibly a civil war in consequence of 
it, remain silent for the present, leaving with you the great 
responsibility of doing that for which you have no authority, 
and preventing me from complying with the President's orders. 

" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"S. W. Kearney, 
'■'■Brigadier-General, United States Army, 



" Commodore R. F. Stockton, Actinsf Governor of California.' 



The motives which actuated Col. Fremont in electing 
to pursue the course which he did upon the arrival of 
Gen. Kearney, are scarcely open to misconstruction. 
There happens, however, to be the best of evidence in 
regard to them in a letter addressed to Col. Benton at 



il 



STOCKTON AND KEAENEY. 197 

the time of the collision which reveals in all the con- 
fidence of personal friendship, the innermost secrets of 
his heart. In that letter, he says : 

* * * ""When I entered Los Angeles T was igno- 
rant of the relations subsisting between these gentlemen, having 
received from neither any order or information which might 
serve as a guide in the circumstances. I therefore, immediately 
on my arrival, waited upon the governor and commander-in- 
chief, Commodore Stockton ; and, a few minutes afterwards, 
called upon General Kearney. I soon found them occupying a 
hostile attitude, and each denying the right of the other to 
assume the direction of affairs in this country. 

" The ground assumed by General Kearney was, that he held 
in his hand plenary instructions from the President directing 
him to conquer California, and organize a civil government, 
and that consequently he would not recognize the acts of Com- 
modore Stockton. 

" The latter maintained that his own instructions were to toe 
same effect as Kearney's; that this officer's commission was 
obsolete, and never would have been given could the govern- 
ment have anticipated that the entire country, seaboard and 
interior, would have been conquered and held by himself. The 
country had been conquered and a civil government instituted 
since September last, the constitution of the territory, and 
appointments under the constitution, had been sent to the gov- 
vernment for its approval, and decisive action undoubtedly long 
since had upon them. General Kearney was instructed to con- 
quer the country, and upon its threshold his command had been 
nearly cut to pieces, and, but for relief from him (Commodore 
Stockton) would have been destroyed. More men were lost 
than in General Taylor's battle of the 8th. In regard to the 
remaining part of his instructions, how could he organize a gov- 
ernment without first proceeding to disorganize the present one ? ^ 



If*^ LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

HiTwork had been anticipated; his commission was absolutely 
voi I, null, and of no effect. 

'But if General Kearney believed that his instructions gave 
hit paramount authority in the country, he made a fatal error 
on his arrival. He was received with kindness and distinc- 
tiou by the commodore, and offered by him the command of his 
land forces. General Kearney rejected the offer and declined 
interfering with Commodore Stockton. This officer was theu 
preparing for a march to Ciudad de los Angeles, his force being 
priiicipally sailors and marines, who were all on foot (fortunately 
for them), and who were to be provided with supplies on their 
march through an enemy's country where all the people are 
cavalry. His force was paraded, and ready to start, 700 in 
number, supported by six pieces of artillery. The command, 
under General Stockton, had been conferred upon his first lieu- 
tenant, Mr. Rowan. At this juncture General Kearney expressed 
to Commodore Stockton his expectation that the command 
would have been given to him. The commodore informed the 
general that Lieutenant Rowan was in his usual line of duty, as 
on board ship, relieving him of the detail and drudgery of the 
ca np, while he himself remained the commander-in-chief; that 
if General Kearney was willing to accept Mr. Rowan's place, 
under these circumstances, he could have it. The general 
assented. Commodore Stockton called up his officers and 
explained the case. Mr. Rowan gave up his post generously 
and without hesitation; and Commodore Stockton desired them 
clearly to understand that he remained the commander-in-chief; 
under, this arrangement the whole force entered Angeles; and 
on the day of my arrival at that place General Kearney told me 
that he did then, at that moment, recognize Commodore Stock- 
ton as governor of the territory. 

"You are aware that I had contracted relations with Commo- 
dore Stockton, and I thought it neither right nor politically 
honorable to withdraw my support. No reason of interest shall 
ever compel me to act towards any man in such a way that 
should afterwards be ashamed to meet him." 



1 



STOCKTON AND KEAENET. 199 

Early in the spring, new instructions, bearing date 
Nov, 5tli, readied Commodore Stockton, wliich put an 
end to the latter's supremacy in that quarter. In his 
dispatch, the Secretary of the Navy says: 

"The President has deemed it best for the public interests, to 
invest the military officer commanding, witli the direction of the 
operations on land, and with the administrative functions of the 
government over the people and territory occupied by us. You 
will relinquish to Col. Mason, or to General Kearney, if the lat- 
ter shall arrive before you have done so, the entire control over 
these matters, and turn over to him all papers necessary to the 
performance of his duties." 

Instructions of a corresponding import were of course 
received from the War Department, by General Kear- 
ney, and with them, or not long afterwards, a dispatch 
from Mr. Marcy, of which the following is an extract : 

EXmACT FROM INSTRUCTIONS TO BRIGADIER-GENERAL KEARNEY. 

" War Department, June, 11, 1S47, 
********* 

"When the dispatch from this Department was sent out in 
November last, there was reason to believe that Lieutenant-Col- 
onel Fremont would desire to return to the United States, and 
vou were then directed to conform to his wishes in that respect. 
It is not now proposed to change that direction. But since that 
time it lias become known here that he bore a conspicuous part 
in the conquest of California, that his services have been very 
valuable in that country, and doubtless will continue .to be so 
should be remain there. 

" Impressed, as all engaged in the public service must be, with 
the great importance of harmony and cordial co-operation in 
carrying on military operations in a country so distant from the 
seat of authority, the President is persuaded that when his defi- 



200 LITE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

nite instructions were received^ all questions of difficulty were set- 
tled, and all feelings which had been elicited by the agitation of 
them had subsided. 

" Should Lieut. Col. Fremont, tvho has the option to return or 
remain, adopt the latter alternative, the President does not 
doubt you will employ him in such a manner as will render his 
services most available to the public interest, having reference to 
liis extensive acquaintance with the inhabitants of California, 
and his knowledge of their language, qualifications independent 
of others, which it is supposed may be very useful in the present 
and prospective state of our affairs in that country. * * * 
" Very respectfully your ob't servant, 

" W. L. Marcv, Secretary of War:' 

The "definite instructions" towliicb reference is liere 
made were never communicated to Colonel FremoTit, 
and their suppression was very justly esteemed by him 
a grievance for several reasons, and among others, be- 
cause they show that by the President's directions it 
was at Col. Fremont's option whether h'e would remain 
in California or not, an option, however, which was 
denied him by General Kearney. 

Early in March, and after taking the supreme com* 
mand in California, Gen. Kearney addressed Col. Fre- 
mont the following letter : 

GEN. KEARNEY TO COL. FREMONT. 

" HeACQUARTKRS, lllTH JIlLITART DEPARTMENT, ) 

MosTERKY, U. C, Jfurc/i 1, 1S47. J 

" Sir : By Department orders. No. 2, of this date (which will 
be handed to you by Captain Turner, 1st Diagoons, A.A.A.G., for 
my command) you will see that certain duties are there required 
of you as commander of the battalion of California volunteers. 

" In addition to the duties above referred to, I have now to 
direct that you will bring with you, and with as little delay as 



CONTKOVEKSY WITH KEAKNET. 201 

possible, all the archives and public docuraents and papers which 
may be subject to your control, and which appertain to the gov- 
ernment of California, that I may receive them from your hands 
at this place, the capital of the Territt)ry. 

" I have directions from the general-in-chief not to detain you 
in this country against your wishes, a moment longer than the 
necessities of the service may require ; and you will be at lib- 
erty to leave here after you have complied with these instruc- 
tions, and those in the order referred to. ^ 
" Very respectfully your obedient servant, 

"S. W. Kearney, 
" Brig. Gen., and Governor of California. 

" Lt. Col. J. C. Fremont, Regt. of Mtd. Riflemen, 
Com'g. Bat. of California Vols., 
Ciudad de los Angeles." 

About a month, latgr, iie received the following ordei 
from Gen. Kearney : 

" Headquarters, 10th Military Department, ) 
MoMEREY, California, March 28. f 

"Sir: This will be handed to you by Col. Mason, 1st Dra- 
goons, who goes to the southern district, clothed by me with ful? 
authori ty to give such orders and instructions upon all matters,, 
both civil and military, in that section of the country, as he may 
deem proper and necessary. Any instructions he may give you, 
will be considered as coming from myself." 

A few weeks later Col. Fremont received orders 
from General Kearney to report himself at Monterey 
with sueh of the members of his topographical corps as 
were still under pay, prepared to set out at once for 
Washington. Col. Fremont then applied for permission 
to join his regiment under General Taylor's command, 
supposed to be on its way to Vera Cruz. This request 

9^ 



202 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FEEMONT. 

was refused without explanation or apology, and on the 
14th of June Col. Fremont addressed General Kearney 
as follows : 

FROM COL. FREMONT TO GENERAL KEARNEY. 

" New Helvetia, Upper California, June 14, 1847. 

" Sir : In a communication which I received from yourself 
in March of the present year I am informed that you had been 
directed by the commander-in-chief not to detain me in this 
country against my wishes longer than the absolute necessities 
of the service might require. 

" Private letters in which I have entire confidence further in- 
form me that the President has been pleased to dii-ect that I should 
be permitted the choice of joining my regimeat in Mexico, or 
returning directly to the United States. An application which I 
had the honor to make to you at the Ciudad de los Angeles for 
permission to proceed immediately to Mexico, having been 
rejected, and the duties of the exploring expedition which had 
been confided to my direction, having been terminated by your- 
self, I respectfully request that I may now be relieved of all con- 
nection with the topographical party which you have taken under 
your charge, and be permitted to return to the United States. 
Travelling with a small party by a direct route, my knowledge 
of the country and freedom from professional business, will 
enable me to reach the States some forty or fifty days earlier than 
yourself, which the present condition of afiairs and a long ab- 
sence from my family make an object of great importance 
to me. 

" It may not be improper to say to you that ray journey will 
be made with private means, and will not therefore, occasion any 
expenditure to the government. I have the honor to be, with 
much respect, your obedient servant, 

"J. C. Fremont, 
'■Lieut. Colonel J Mounted Rijlemen. 
" Brigadier-General S. W. Kearney, Commanding, &c." 



CONTEOVEESY "WITH KEAENET. 203 

To this request Col. Fremont received the followiDg 
replj : 

GENERAL KEARNEY TO COL. FREMONT. 

" Camp near New Helvetia, California, Jvm.e 14, 1S47. 

"Sir: The request contained in jour communication to me 
of this date, to be relipved from all connection with the topo- 
graphical party (nineteen men) and be permitted to return to 
the United States with a small party made up by your private 
means, cannot be granted. 

" I shall leave here on Wednesday, the 16th instant, and I 
require of you to be with your topographical party in my camp 
(which will probably be fifteen miles from here) on the evening 
of that day, and to continue with me to Missouri. 
" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" S. W. Kearney. 
'■'■Brigadier- General. 

"Lieut. Col. Fremont, Regiment Mounted Riflemen, 
"ifew Helvetia." 

The appointment of Mason to the command of tho 
Southern District with the authority over Fremont, con- 
ferred by the order of the 28th of March proved to 
the latter a source of extreme irritation and annoy- 
ance, and was near producing much more serious results. 
Mason seemed to share the grudge which General 
Kearney bore to Fremont, and to take pleasure in doing 
whatever seemed calculated to mortify and humiliate 
liim, for which, if he chose to avail himself of them, of 
course he had abundant opportunities in his new posi- 
tion. Fremont subsequently came to the conclusion 
that Mason wished to provoke a challenge, and then by 
selecting a weapon with which he was very expert — a 



, 204 LIFE AND SERVlCKi OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

double-barrelled shot-gun, which Fremont knew nothing 
about — to shoot him. If such was his purpose, he accom- 
plished it, so far as provoking the challenge, and having 
the choice of his favorite weapon.* lie was in the 
liabit of sending for Fremont several times a day, to 
come to his quarters, which were at the house of an 
unfriendly resident at los Angeles, "to be questioned in 
the presence of other officers with whom he had no social 
relations, and who, it is alleged, were in attendance for 
the purpose of being used as witnesses. One day he 
directed Fremont to bring to him the one hundred and 
twenty horses which he had sent to grass in the country, 
to recruit for a march into Mexico, which he at that 
time contemplated, to join General Taylor, little dream- 
ing, that even then, his enemies were collecting their 
evidence, and perfecting their arrangements to have 

• The following paragraph from the Sporting Magazine, vol. 4, p. 533, 
will explain Colonel Mason's preference for so unusual and unoflScer-like 
a weapon for the settlement of an affair of honor. . 

"The drawing herewith sent is a sketch of a scene, in which Captain 
R. B. Mason, as frequently happens, acted a conspicuous part. 

" A party of six gentlemen left St Louis about 10 o'clock A. M., with 
the intention of hunting a few acres of high grass on the American bot- 
tom, and, if possible, killing a deer or two. We no sooner arrived at the 
high grass than old Rock broke forth in full cry. His deep-mouthed 
tones were barely heard before two fine does bounced in front of Mr. 
Henderson, but two far off for a successful shot, making directly for 
Captain Mason, who wheeled his horse directly around ; and, as rapidly 
as the occasion required, raised his gun with his right hand, holding the 
bridle reins with the left, as represented in the drawing — fired both 
barrels in quick succession, bringing down dead in their tracks, one with 
each barrel. It was the work of an instant, and the effect was like 
magic. It may not be amiss to state that Captain Mason always shoots, 
when mounted, as represented in the plate ; and I have seen him kiU 
grouse on the wing and knock down deer on the jump, in that manner, 
and sometimnp wlien his horse was nearly at his speed." 



THE MASON DUEL. 205 

Lim sent home in disgrace. Tlie order to produce 
the horses was esteemed an insulting one, iinder the 
circumstances, and the time within which it was to 
be executed too limited. Mason sent for Fremont 
twice in the course of tlie same afternoon, to come 
to his quarters to answer about the horses. Fre- 
mont resented what he esteemed the brutahty of 
Mason's course and manner, to which Mason replied, 
" None of your insolence, or I will put you in irons." 
The sequel justified Fremont's suspicions that the order 
to bring up the horses was a mere pretext for insulting 
him ; for when brought, they were turned over to 
Mason's friendly witness, who sold them for one, two, 
and three dollars apiece. Fremont's friends saw that 
Mason's designs were mischievous, and they urged the 
colonel to restrain his feelings to the utmost. He did 
Bo until the remark above quoted was uttered, when 
his indignation knew no bounds. But even here 
his coolness, which had so often served him in 
more trying situations, did not forsake him. He 
at once asked Mason if he held himself person- 
ally accountable for what he said. Mason replied 
that he did, whereat Fremont leaped upon his horse, 
dashed back to his quarters, and wrote two notes, the 
first asking a retraction of the offensive words, and ano- 
ther based upon his probable refusal to make a retrac- 
tion, conve')'ing a challenge, and dispatched both by his 
friend Major P. B. Reading. These notes and Colonel 
Mason's reply to the first, ran as follows : 

FREMONT TO MASOy. * 

" CirDAD DE LOS AvGELES, April 14, 1847. 

"Sir: I have the honor* to request through my friend, 
Major P. B. Reading, who will hand you this note, that you 



20 «" " LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FKEMONT. 

apok^jze for the injurious language applied to me tliis 
day. 

" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
"J. C. Fremont, 
" Lieut. Col. Mounted Rijlemen. 
"■Q\A. R. R, Mason, 
" Col. Dragoons, Ciudad de los Angeles." 

MASON TO FREMONT. 

"Anqblbs, AprU 14, 184T. 

" Sir : I have just received your note of this evening, and 
can only repeat in writing, what I stated to yo'u verbally, when 
we parted, via. : ' I thought you intended to be so. You best 
knew whether you did or did not.' Your not disavowing it, left 
me to infer th .t I was not mistaken ; with that impression upon 
my mind, I ca«i say nothing more until it be removed. 

"I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"R. B. Mason. 
" Lieut. Col. J. 0. Fremont, 

" Mo inted Riflemen." 

FREMONT TO MASON. 

•'Ciudad db lo3 Auqelks, April 14, 184T. 

" Sir : An a) ©logy having been declined. Major Reading will 

arrange the preJiminaries for a meeting, requiring personal satis- 

/action. 

" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"J. C. Fremont. 

" Lieut. Col. Mounted Rijlemen. 

" Col. R. B. Mason, 

"First Dragoons, Ciudad de los Angeles." 

Ko further answer was received from Mason that 



THE MASON DUEL. 207 

fcfening; bat r!»l>:ng on tlie verbal acceptance and' 
designation of weapons, loading and time, Col. Fremont's 
friends proceeded to bunt np a double barrelled gun. 
Col. Fremont had no sucb weapon, and had never used 
such a one. But he was ready by daybreak, with the 
requisite gun and shot, but nothing was heard fartiier of 
Mason until towards noon, when Capt. Smith of the 
dragoons, arrived wiih the following note : 



MASON TO FREMONT. 

" Anoblbs, April 15, ^1347. 

"Sir: With a view to the adjustment of my private affairs, 
it is necessary that I return to Monterey, before I afford you the 
meeting you desire. We shall probably reach there within a 
i few days of each other, I will then, as soon as circumstances 
permit, arrange the necessary preliminaries for the meeting. 
" I am respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"K. B. Mason. 
"Lieut. Col. Fremont, 
" Mounted Riflemen." 

To which Fremont replied ; 

" CiiTDAD DB LOS Anqeles, April 15, 1847. 

"Sir: I am in receipt of your letter of this date, and in 
reply have the honor to state that I will hold myself in readi- 
ness for a meeting at Monterey, at such time as you may desig- 
nate. 

" I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"J. C. Fremont, 
" Lieut. Col. Mounted Bijlemm. 
"Col. E. B. Mason, 
" First Dragoons, Ciudad de los Angeles." 



208 LIFE AND SERVICES OB JOHN C. FKEMONT. 

The duel was thereby adjourned to Monterey ; but no 
note was received from Mason fixing a time. 

A day or two after these notes passed, Col. Mason went 
to Monterey. After his arrival there, Gen. Keainey 
came down to Los Angeles, and had a convei'sation with 
Col. Fremont on the subject of the duel, saying he for- 
bade it, and had left an order at Monterey to tliat elfect. 
Fremont soon followed to Monterey. On ari-iving there, 
Capt. Tyler, an intimate of Mason's, called on Col. Fre- 
mont, said that he did not come by direction of Mason, 
that he had talked with him about it, that Mason did 
not 'intend to insult him, &c. Col. Fremont paid no 
attention to this, went to Col. Mason's quarters, was 
invited to sit down but did not, saying that he came to 
let Col. Mason see that he was in Monterey, and then 
walked away. 

Soon after quitting Col. Mason's quarters an order 
from Gen. Kearney was delivered to Col. Fremont by 
the adjutant general in these words : 

" IlEADQlTARTERS, TEN BflLE DEPOT, I 

" Monterey, Cal., Mat/ 4, l!54T. ) 

" Sir : It lias been reported liere, by some of the discharged 
men of the battalion of California volunteers, just arrived from 
Pueblo de los Angeles, that a challenge has passed between Col. 
Mason, of the 1st dragoons, and yourself, the meeting to take 
place at or near Monterey. 

" As I am about leaving here for the South, in consequence of 
rumors of an excitement among the people in that district of 
country, it becomes my duty to inform you that the good of the 
public service the necessity of preserving tranquillity in Cali- 
fornia, imperiously require that the meeting above referred to 
should not take place at this time, and in this country, and you 
are hereby officially directed by me to proceed no further in 
this matter. 



THE MASON DUEL. 209 

"A similar communication has been addressed t*o Colonel Mason. 

" Very respectfully, 

" Your obedient servant, 

" S. W. Kearney, Brigadier General. 
** Lietilenant-Colonel Fremont, 

" Regiment Mounted Rifles, Monterey." 

" N.B. — A letter to same purport, and of sanle date, addressed 
to Col. Mason." 

Soon after the receipt of the foregoing, came the 
following letter from Mason himself to Fremont. 

MoNTERKT, May 19, 1S47. 

" Sir : The affair between us has been made public here by 
the arrival, about the 4th instant, of some of the discharged men 
of the late battalion of California volunteers from Los Angeles. 

" I did not expect that this afiair would have gained publicity 
until it had finally been terminated, but it has turned out 
otherwise. . The result is, it has come to the knowledge of the 
general, and you doubtless have received, as well as myself, a 
communication from him upon the subject. This unforeseen and 
unexpected circumstance, together with reasons which you will 
find in the copy of a letter on the next page, dated on the 4th 
of the present month, renders it proper that the meeting should 
be postponed to some future time and place. 

" I am inclined to believe that, under the existing state of 
things, you will at once see the propriety of this course. 
" I am, respectfully, 

" Your obedient servant, 

" R. B. Masoit. 
"Lieut. Col. Fremont." 

The letter referred to by Mason, and a copy of which 
was sent with his own, in his own handwriting, said as fol- 
lows : 



210 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FUEMOKT. 

> V. S. SHIP COLCMBUS. J 

MONTERKT, 31(11/ 4th, 1847. J 

"Mr DEAR Coxonel: A party of Californian volunteers, 
recently under Lieut. Col. Fremout, have just arrived on their 
way to the north. They state publicly that at Puebla a challenge 
had pasosd between yourself and Lieut. Col. Fremont, and that 
on the arrival of the latter here, a hostile meeting would take 
place. I learn that this statement is generally credited on shore. 
As your personal friend, and the friend of your public character, 
this statement has given me great pain. You cannot but be sen- 
sible that, in the present condition of things in California, per- 
sonal collisions between the officers must be highly injurious to 
the public interest. You cannot but know that it is the duty 
of all of us to suppress for the moment every angry feeling of a 
personal nature, and to give ourselves zealously, cordially, and 
exclusively to the public service. Permit me to appeal to your 
patriotism, and to your sense of public duty, and upon these 
grounds to entreat that any contemplated hostile meeting may 
be postponed. Elsewhere, and at another time, it may not be 
improper, but there, in the present distracted state of affairs, it 
could have no other result than to injure the public, and to 
injure your military reputation. 

" I remain, very truly, 

" Your friend, &c., 

" James Biddle. 
" Col. Mason, U. S. Army, Monterey." 

To these two letters CoL Fremont returned this 
answer : 

«' MoNTBRET, May 22d, 1847. 

"Sib: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt, on yes- 
terday, of your note of the 19th instant, accompanied by a copy 
of a letter from Commodore Biddle to yourself. 

"The object of your note appears to be to induce me to con- 



THE MASON DUEL. 211 

sent to a further, and indefinite postponement of a meeting. If 
such be your desire I am willing to comply with it, trusting that 
you will apprise me of the earliest moment at which the meet- 
ing can take place consistently with your convenience and sense 

of propriety. 

"I am most respectfully, 

" Your obedient servant, 

"John C. Fremont. 
« Col. R. B. Mason, Monterey." 

MASON TO FREMONT. 

MosTEEBT, Oal., May 24, 1847. 

"Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your 
.better of the 22d instant. I shall certainly promptly inform you 
when the peculiar official obligations, under which I find myself 
placed in this country, are so far removed as to enable me to 
Tuieet you. 

" I am, respectfully. 

Your obedient servant, 

"R. B. Mason. 
" Lieutenant-Colonel J. C. Fremont, U. S. A." 

The following letter from Major Keading to Colonei 
Fremont at Monterey, immediately after this second 
adjournment took place, supplies some additional de- 
tails. It ran as follows : 

MAJOR READING TO COLONEL FREMONT. 

" Monterey, Cal., May 2T, 1S47. 

" Dear Sir : In reply to your favor of yesterday, I will state 
that immediately after having delivered your challenge to Colo- 
nel Mason, he informed me that he would give you the desired 
meeting, and said to me, in order that there might be as little 
delay as possible, lie would inform me (though informally) that 



212 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

be would select double-barrelled shot-guns as the "weapons to be 
used on the occasion. I replied to him at once that I should 
lose no time in obtaining such a weapon for Colonel Fremont — 
that in the morning I should have him provided with a good 
gun. When I delivered the challenge to Colonel Mason, it was 
about eight o'clock in the evening, though you received this 
written acceptance, through his friend Captain Smith, near noon 
the following day, in which he proposed that the meeting should 
take place at Monterey, distant from the Puebla de los Angeles 
about four miles. This gave us considerable surprise, as wo 
expected and were fully prepared to have taken the field that 
day — forming our opinions from the character of his conversa- 
tion to me the preceding evening, 

" Since that period, your correspondence with Colonel Mason 
contains the history of this afi"air. 

" T am, most respectfully, your very obedient servant, 

"R. B. Reading. 

" Lieutenant-Colonel J. C. Fremont, U. S. A." 

It was the opinion of Col. Benton, and he so publicly 
expressed himself in the Senate, that the three letters 
of Biddle, Kearney, and Mason, were collusive, got up 
in concert among them, and all looking to the extrica- 
tion of Mason, and not to the laws of honor, or of mar- 
tial or municipal law, or common Humanity ; all of 
which would have required two of the concern (Biddle 
and Kearney) to have used their official authority and 
their personal influence to have put an end to so savage 
a dr.el. Kearney's conduct in adjourning and licensing 
the duel — for in his order he did both — was particularly 
exceptionable, for by the 26th of the rules and articles 
of war, it is made " the duty of every officer command- 
ing an army, regiment, post, or detachment, who is 
knowing to a challenge being given or accepted by any 



THE MASON DUEL. 213 

officer, non-commissioned officer, or soldier, under his 
command, or has reason to believe the same to be the 
case, immediately to arrest and hring to trial such 
offenders.'''' 

Nothing iurtlier was heard from Mr. Mason for over 
three years. Soon after the events just recited, Col. 
Fremont was sent home by Gen. Kearney under arrest. 
In tlie fall of the following year he returned overland 
to California, and as he entered the territory from the 
east, Col. Mason left by a steamer from the west, for 
the United States. InlSoOFremont went to Washington 
as Unife^jd States senator. Just at the close of the ses- 
sion, and when he was about starting again with his 
family for California, he received a note tVom Col. Ma- 
son — the first since that of May, 1847 — informing him 
that if he would come out to St. Louis (where Mason 
was then residing) he should have the satisfaction which 
be (Mason) had promised him just three years and a- 
half before. Of course Col. Fremont paid no attention 
to tlie letter. lie sailed in a few days for California, 
whither the intelligence not long after followed, of Col. 
Mason's death. 

We will now resume the thread of our narrative. 

General Kearney broke up his camp near Sutter's 
fort on the day after issuing the order of the 14th 
of June, and set out for the United States, attended 
by Col. Fremont, who was treated, however,, with 
deliberate disrespect throughout the journey. The 
party reached Fort Leavenworth about the 2 2d of 
August. On that day General Kearney sent for him, 
and directed Lieut. Wharton to read to him a copy of 
the first paragraph of an order he had just issued of 
that date, as foUows : 



214 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JODN C. FREMONT. 

"Fort Lbavenworth, ^m£;im< 22if, 18i7. 

"Lieutenant Col. Fremont, of tlie regiment of inoiinred rifle- 
men, will turn over to the officers of the ditierent departments 
at this post, the horses, mules, and other public property in the 
use of the topographical party now under his charge, for which 
receipts will be given. He will arrange the accounts of these 
men (nineteen in number) so that they can be paid at the 
earliest possible date. Lieutenant Colonel Fremont having 
performed the above duty will consider himself under arrest, 
and will then repair to Washington City and report himself to 
the Adjutant General of the Army." * * * 

Thus, like Columbus, Col. Fremont returned from the 
discovery and conquest of a New "World beyond the 
Eocky Mountains, a prisoner and in disgrace. Like 
Columbus his achievements and rapid promotion, had 
awakened the jealousy of certain sordid hearts and nar- 
row minds, and like Columbus, instead of being permitted 
to continue his researches in the vast region wiiich he had 
first brought within the reach of science, he was required 
to come liome and defend himself from the attacks of 
men who had just sense enough to envy his successes 
without the ability to achieve them.. 

Col. Fremont repaired at once to Washington, where 
he arrived on or about the 16th of September. Ilis 
journey led him through St. Louis, the lirst city that he 
entered upon his return to his native country after a 
most eventful absence of nearly two years. The history 
of his brilliant achievements had preceded him, and the 
reception which he met with, compensated him to some 
extent for the indignities to which he had been sub- 
jected in his tedious journey over the plains from 
California. He was immediately addressed by a large 
number of the most respectable citizens of St. Louis, 



RECEPTION AT ST. LOUIS. 215 

who, after congraLulating him upon his safe arrival and 
rr"-iTi^'^i:' v.ing his claims to public admiration, tendered 
i.iu an invitation to a public dinner, as a token of their 
esteem and regard. He was touched by this most 
seasonable evidence of undiminished confidence, and 
immediately addressed them the following reply : 

LETTER FROM COL. FREMONT TO THE CITIZEITS OF ST. LOUlS. 

" St. Locis, August 30(h, 184T. 

"Gentlemen: I had the pleasure this morning to receive 
your letter of this date, in which, with many kind assurances of 
welcome and congratulations on my return, you honor with the 
strong expression of your approbation, ray geographical labors 
during the recent explorations in Oregon and North California, 
and the military operations in which sudden emergencies 
involved me in California. 

" I beg you to receive my earnest acknowledgments for the 
very favorable notice you have bestowed upon the published 
results of those expeditions, and I regret that events which inter- 
rupted, and more recent circumstances which abruptly termi- 
nated the last exploration, will permit me to give only a brief 
and imperfect account of California, and of the intervening 
basin, which it had been the great object of the expedition to 
explore and determine. 

" The labor of many years in the interest of science, under- 
taken and sustained with only a distant hope of gaining your 
good opinion, has received, in the rapid progress of events, an 
earlier reward than I could possibly have hoped for or antici- 
pated ; but I am free to say that the highest pleasure I received 
from the perusal of your letter, was derived from your decided 
approval of my political course in North California. Circum- 
stances there made us, in connection with the emigrants to that 
country, involuntary witnesses, and unwilling actors at the birth 
of a great nation, but to which we now consider it our great 



216 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

good fortune to have aided in securing the blessings of peace 
■with civil and religious liberty. 

" Placed in a critical and delicate position, where imminent 
danger urged immediate action, and where the principal diffi- 
culty lay in knowing full well what must be done ; where in a 
struggle barely for the right to live, every ettbrt to secure our 
safety involved unusual and grave responsibilities, I could only 
hope' from your forbearance a suspension of judgment until, with 
full possession of facts, you would be able to determine under- 
standingly. 

" I had the gratification, on my arrival, to find that neither 
remoteness of situation, nor the more immediately important 
and interesting events at home, had diverted your attention from 
our conduct, but from a knowledge only of the leading occur 
fences in California, it had been fully justified and sustained. 

" I regret that, under present circumstances, I cannot have the 
pleasure of meeting you at the dinner you have done me the 
honor to offer me, but I beg you to accept the assurances of the 
high and grateful sense which I entertain of your kindness and 
regard, and the very flattering manner in which you have 
expressed it. 

" With sentiments of respect and consideration, I am, gentle- 
men, your very obedient servant, 

«J. C. Fremont." 



nclAL BY A CODET MARTIAL. 217 



CHAPTEK X. 

KkEMONT arrives at WASHINGTc.J^ ^DEMANDS A COURT MAR- 
TIAL ILLNESS AND DEATH OF HIS MOTHER COURT MAR- 
TIAL ORDERED ITS ORGANIZATION AND PROGRESS FRE- 

MONt's DEFENCE VERDICT OF THE COURT — SENTENCE 

REMriTED BY THE PRESIDENT RESIGNS HIS COMMISSION 

AND RETIRES FROM THE ARMY. 

The fame of Col. Fremont's arrest preceded' him 
across the Alleghanies, and some days before his arrival 
at Washington, had penetrated the seclusion of his 
widowed mother's home at Aiken, in South Carolina. 
Her heart had not been properly prepared for such tid- 
mgs, and the pleasure which he naturally expected from 
rejoining his family wg,s destined to be qualified by one 
of the severest trials he had yet known. He found let- 
ters at Washington informing him that his mother was 
dangerously ill. Without delay, he asked for leave of 
absence to join her, and it was granted on the following 
day ; but before availing himself of it, he addressed the 
following manly letter to the adjutant general, in rela- 
tion to his position in the service : 

LETTER FROM COL. FREMONT TO THE ADJUTANT GENERAL. 

Stbkbt, Washinotoh, Sept. 17th, 1847. 

To THE Adjutant General : 

" Sir : According to the orders of Brigadier General Kearney, 

10 



218 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. THJEMONT. 

I have tbe honor to report myself to you in person, in a stato of 
arrest, and to tnake tlie following requests: 

" 1. A copy of the charges filed against rae by the said 
gen3ral. 

" 2. A copy of the orders under which the said general 
brought back from California to the United States myself and 
the topographical party of which I had the command. 

" 3. A copy of the communications from Senator Benton, ask- 
ing for my arrest and trial on the charges made in the newspaper? 
against me, and which application from him I adopt and make 
my own. 

" 4. That charges and specifications, in addition to those filed 
by General Kearney, be made out in form against rae, on all 
the newspaper publications which have come or shall come to 
the ofiice, oral or written. 

" 5. That I may have a trial as soon as the witnesses now in 
the United Slates can be got to Washington ; for, although the 
testimony of the voice of California, through some of its most 
respectable inhabitants, is essential to me, and also that of Com- 
modore Stockton, who has not yet arrived from that province, 
yet I will not wish the delay of waiting for these far distant wit- 
nesses, and will go into trial on the testimony now in the United 
States, part of which is in the Staft of Missouri, and may 
require thirty days to get into Washington. I therefore ask for 
a trial at the end of that time. 

" These requests I have the honor to make, and hope they 
will be found to be just, and will be granted. I wish a full trial, 
and a speedy one. The charges against me by Brigadier Gene- 
ral Kearney, and the subsidiary accusations made against me in 
newspapers, when I was not in this country, impeach me in all 
the departments of my conduct (military, civil, poliiical, and 
moral), while in California, and, if true, would subject me to be 
cashiered and shot, imder the rules and articles of war, and to 
infamy in the public opinion. 

" It is my intention to meet these charges in all their extent 



ll 



DKMANDS A COTJllT MAUTIAL. 219 

and for that purpose to ask a trial upon every point of allegation 
or insinuation ag-ainst me, waiving all objections to forms and 
technicalities, and allowing the widest range to all possible testi- 
mony. 

" These charges and accusations are so general and extensive 
as to cover the whole field of mv operations in California, both 
civil and military, from the beginning to the end of hostilities; 
and as my operations, and those of which I was the subject or 
object, extend to almost every act and event which occurred 
in th« country during the eventful period of those hostilities, the 
testimony on my trial will be the history of the conquest of 
California, and the exposition of the policy which has been here- 
tofore pursued there, and the elucidation of that vvhich should 
be followed hereafter. It will be the means of giving valuable 
information to the government, which it might not otherwise be 
able to obtain, and thus enlighten it, both with rer-pect to the 
past and the future. Being a military subordinate, I can make 
no report, not even of my own operations; but my trial may 
become a report, and bring to the knowledge of tlie government 
what it ought to know, not only with respect to the conduct of 
its oflBcers, but also in regard to the policy observed, or necessary 
to be observed, with regard to the three-fold population (Spanish, 
Americans, Anglo-Americlins, and Aboriginal-Americans), which 
that remote province contains. Viewed under these aspects of 
public interests, my own personal concern in the trial — already 
sufficiently grave — acquires an additional and public importance ; 
and for these high objects, as well as to vindicate my own cha- 
racter from accusations both capital and infamous, it is my 
intention to require and to promote the most searching exami- 
nation into everything that has been done in that quarter. 

' The public mind has become impressed with the belief 
that great misconduct has prevailed in California; and, in fact, 
it would be something rare in the history of remote conquests 
and governments, where every petty commantier might feel 
himself invested with proconsulate authority, atid ])rot('cled by 
distance from the supervision of his government, if nothiuar 



220 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. lEEMONT. 

wrong or culpable has been done by the public agents of the 
United States in that remote province. The public believes 
it, and the charges filed against me by Brigadier General Kear- 
ney — the subsidiary publications made against me whilst I was 
not in the country — my arrest on the frontier, and the premoni- 
tory rumor of that event — the manner of my being brought 
home for trial, not in irons, as some newpaj.ers suppose, but in 
chains stronger than iron, and with circumstances of ostentation 
and galling degradation — have all combined to present me as 
the great malefactor, and the sole one. Heretofore I have said 
nothing, and could have said nothing in my own defence. I was 
ignorant of all that was going on against me ; ignorant of the 
charges sent from California ; ignorant of the intended arrest, 
and of the subsidary publications to prejudice the public mind. 
What was published in the United States in my favor, by my 
friends, was done upon their own views of things here, and of 
which P knew nothing. It was only on my arrival at the fron- 
tiers of the United States, that I became acquainted with these 
things, which concerned me so nearly. Brought home by 
General Kearney, and marched in his rear, T did not know of his 
design to arrest me until the moment of its execution at Fort 
Leavenworth. He then informed me that, among the charges he 
bad preferred, were mutiny, disobedience of orders, assumption 
of powers, &c., and referred me to your office for particulars. 
Accordingly I now apply for them, and ask for a full and speedy 
trial, not only on the charges filed by the said general, but on 
all accusations contained in the publications against me. 

" The private calamity which has this evening obtained for 
me permission from the Department to visit South Carolina, 
does not create any reason for postponement or delay of the 
trial, or in any way interfere with the necessary preliminaries. 
Hoping, then, sir, that you will obtain and communicate to me 
an early decision of the proper authorities on these requests. 
" I remain your obedient servant, John C. Fremont. 
" Lieut. Col., Mounted JRlJles.V 

Having dispatched this letter, Col. Fremont set out 



DEATH OF HIS MOTHEK. 221 

at once for^tlie bedside of his mother. lie did not 
arrive at Washington until Thursday, the 16th of 
September. On the following Monday he was in 
Charleston, The melancholy issue of his wmt was 
briefly told in the following paragraph which appeared 
in the Charleston Mercury of Sept. 21 : 

" We regret to leai'n that Col. Fremont did not reach Aiken 
to see his mother ahve. She died but a few hours before his 
arrival. He accompanied her remains the next day to Charles- 
ton, and, after witnessing the last sad rites, left the evening 
following on his return to Washington. In his affliction, 
rendered doubly poignant by his deep disappointment in not 
receiving her parting look of recognition after his long and 
eventful absence, he has the sympathy of our entire community. 

"The marked and brilliant career of Col. Fremont, has 
arrested general attention and admiration, and has been watched 
with lively interest by his fellow citizens of South Carolina. 
Charleston particularly is proud of him and tlie reputation which 
he has at so early an age achieved for himself She claims as 
something in which she too has a share. But for the melan- 
choly circumstance attending his visit, our city would have 
manifested by suitable demonstration their respect for him, and 
their continued confidence in his honor and integrity. It will 
require something more than mere accusation to sully them in 
the minds of the people of Charleston. Some months since a 
sword was voted to him by our citizens, the individual sub- 
scriptions 10 which were limited to %\ ; it now awaits his accep- 
tance at a suitable opportunity. We are happy to learn that the 
ladies of Charleston propose, by a sintilar subscription, to furnish 
an appropriate belt to accompany the sword, an evidence that 
they too can appreciate the gallantry and heroism which have 
so signally marked his career, and have thrown an air of 
romance over the usually dry detail of scientific pursuits."* 

* The sword and belt referred to in the foregoing paragraph were pre- 
sented to Col Fremont soon after the opening of Copkips' '^^ "- 



iJ22 LIFK AND SEHVICIKS OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

In coinpHaiice with Col. Fremont's i;gqucst for a 
speedy trial, a General Court Martial, to consist of 
thirteen members, was ordered to assemble on the 
2d of November, at Fort Monroe, in Virginia, which 
place afterwards, npon ap])lication of tlie accused, was 
changed to the arsenal at Washington City, and the fol- 
lowing officers were detailed to hold the court : 

Brevet Brigadier-General G. M. Brooke, Colonel 5th Infantry, 

Colonel S. Churchill, Inspector General, 

Colonel J. B. Crank, \st Artillert/, 

Brevet Colonel M. M. Payne, 4th Artillery, 

Brevet Colonel S. H. Long, Corps of Ihpographical Engineers, 

Lieutenant-Colonel R. E. D. Russet, Corps of Engineers, 

Lieutenant-Colonel J. P. Taylor, Subsistence Department, 

Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel H. K. Craig, Ordnance Department, 

Major R. S. Baker, Ordnance DepartmeiU, 

Major J. D. Graham, Corps of Topjographical Engineers, 

representatives from South Carolina. The sword was a splendid piece oi 
workmanship, silver and gold mounted. The head of the hilt, around 
•which is coiled a rattlesnake belonging to the old arms of the State, is 
formed to represent the summit of the Palmetto tree. On the guard is a 
map, with the word " Oregon," partly unrolled, to display the coast oi 
the Pacific Ocean. On the scabbard, which is gold, are two silver shields 
hung together, with the words " California" and " 1846," respectively. 
Below them is the following inscription : 

BY THECITIZKNS OP CHARLESTON, 
: TO LIEUTKNANT-COLONEL 

i JOHF CHARLES FREMONT. r 

A MEMORIAL OP THEIR HIGH APPRECIVTIOX 

OF THE GALLANTRY AND SCIENCE 

HE HAS DISPLAYED IN HIS 

SERVICES IN OREGON AND CALIFORNIA. 

Still lower down on'the scabbard is a representation of a buffalo hunt. 

And elegant and costly gold-mounted belt, having the present arms of 
tl 4 State on its clasp, presented by the Ladies of Charleston, accoin. 
p&.iiied the sword. 



THE COUBT MARTIAL. 223 

Major R. Delafikld, Corps of Engineers, 

Brevet Major G. A. McCall, Assistant Adjutant-Uenaral, afterwards 
excused on account of ill health, and Colonel T. F. Hcnt, Deputr^ 
Quarter Master General, appointed in his place, 

Major E. W. Morgan, IKA Infantry. 

Capt, John F. Lee, of the Ordnance Department, was 
appointed judge advocate of tlie court, and Col. Thos. 
H. Benton, fatlier-in-Law, and Wm. Carey Jones, 
brother-in-law of the accused, were selected to conduct 
the defence. 

The charges against him were three in number. 
1. Mutiny. 2. Disobedience of the Lawful Command 
OF A Superior Officer, and 3. Conduct to the Preju- 
dice OF Good Order and Military Discipline. 

The trial commenced on the 2d day of November, 
1847, and concluded on the 31st of January, 1848, 
when a rerdict of guilty was brought in on each of the 
charges, and Col. Fremont was sentenced to be dis 
missed from the service. 

The interest of this, probably the most memorable mili- 
tary trial ever held in the United States, has long since 
passed away. The principal prosecutor was called to 
his last account a few weeks after the trial closed, and 
there are few, if any, left who care now to inquire into 
the motives which actuated him in the course he chose 
to pursue towards his gallant subordinate. The general 
tenor of the controversy has been disclosed in the 
preceding pages. Such additional information as may 
be requisite to an appreciation of Col. Fremont's 
motives in the delicate situation in which he was 
placed between the rival commanders, may be found 
in the masterly defence which he read to the court, and 
which we now submit to the reader with entire con- 
fidence, that whatever may ^e his judgment as to the 



224 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

technical propriety of the verdict, he will be constrained 
to admit, that had Fremont omitted to cooperate with 
Stockton when and as he did, or had he abandoned him 
afterwards, as General Kearney directed him to do, and 
when his abandonment might have been construed into 
a condemnation of a course of action whicli he not only 
approved but advised, he would have justly forfeited, 
not only his own self-respect, but that generous public 
sympathy which actually stripped the verdict cf all 
its terrors, even before it reached him. 

DEFENCE OF LIEUT. COL. FREMONT. 

" Mr. President : The crimes with which I stand charged 
are, 1. Mutiny. 2. Disobedience of orders. 3. Conduct 

PREJUDICIAL TO GOOD ORDER AND DISCIPLINE. Either of these 

would be sufficiently grave in itself; united, they become an 
assemblage of crimes probably never before presented against 
an American officer. They descend from the top to tiie bottom 
of the military gradation of crime ; from that which is capital 
and infamous, to what involves but little of disgrace or punish- 
ment ; but from the whole of which it becomes me to defend 
myself, and from each, in its order, according to the d(?gree of 
its enormity. 

" The crime of mutiny stands at the head of military oflences, 
and, in this case, is presented with all the aggravations of which 
it is susceptible ; rank in the ofiender — time of war — in a for- 
eign country — base and sordid motive — willful persistence. 

" It is the most dangerous of military crimes, and, therefore, 
the most summarily and severely punished. Any officer present 
at a mutiny becomes the judge and punislier of the ofi'eiice upon 
the instant, and may kill the mutineer upon t]w spoi. wiihout 
trial or warning. More than that, he becomes a giea; u.ienuer 
himself if he does not do his i-.tmost to suppies-^ ilu- ii.tiiiny 
which he witnesses, and may bo pu::i.-l;od v,,;h ds-;- 1., u. such 



1 



THE DEFENCE. 225 

Other punishment as a court-martial may award. It is the only- 
case in which death may be inflicted without trial ; in all other 
cases, the supposed offender is presumed to be innocent until he 
is convicted, and cannot be punished until he has been tried. 

" Of this great crime, with all the aggravations of which it is 
susceptible, I am charged to have been guilty, and continuously 
so, from the 17th day of January, 1847, to the 9th day of May 
following, both days inclusive ; during all which time I was 
liable to have been killed by any officer present who believed 
me guilty. I was not killed ; but am now here to be tried, and 
with the presumption of guilt against me from the fact of being 
ordered to be tried. 

" The order to put an officer upon trial is a declaration, virtu- 
ally so, on the part of the high authority giving the order, of 
probable guilt. It is equivalent to the ' true hill ' endorsed by 
the grand jury on the bill of indictment ; and, in this case, is 
equivalent to three such endorsements on three separate bills, 
for three several crimes ; for the order for my trial extends to 
the three different charges upon which I am arraigned, and with 
the trial of the whole of which this court is charged. 

*' utiny is not defined in the United States rules and articles 
of war, or in the British mutiny act from which they are copied, 
and the decisions, as to what will constitute the crime, are very 
various in both countries. I only refer to this want of definition 
of the offence, and to these various decisions, to say that I have 
no objection, in ray own case, to have my conduct judged by 
any case that was ever decided to be mutiny, either in this coun- 
try or in Great Britain, strange and extraordinary as some of 
these cases may appear. 

" The first act of this crime, alleged against me, is found in 
this letter, set out as the basis of specification first in charge 
first. — [See letter of January 17, 1841, pape 192.) 

" If this letter is mutiny, Mr. President, I shall now add 
another aggravation to the five aggravations already attending 
it ; I shall justify it before this court ! and now most respect- 

10* 



226 LITE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C, FREMONT. 

fully declare that I would write th'e same letter over again under 
the same circumstances. But being prosecuted for it, I am 
bound to defend myself, and proceed to do it. 

"I am happy to find that my rights, in one respect, are at 
least equal to theirs — that of stating my own case as fully as 
they stated theirs, and showing how I became principal in a 
contest which was theirs before I heard of it, or came near 
them ; and which, as suggested heretofore, ought to have been 
settled between themselves, or by the government, whose author- 
ity they both bore. A subordinate in rank, as in the contest, 
long and secretly marked out for prosecution by the command- 
ing general, assailed in newspaper publications when three thou- 
sand miles distant, and standing for more than two months 
before this court to hear all that could be sworn against my 
private honor as well as against my official conduct, I come at 
last to the right to speak for myself. 

" In using this privilege, I have to ask of this court to believe 
that the preservation of a commission is no object of my defence. 
It came to me, as did those which preceded it, without asking, 
either by myself, or by any friend in my behalf. I endeavored 
to resign it in California, through General Kearney, in March 
last (not knowing of his design to arrest me), when it was less 
injurious to me than it is at present. Such as it now is, it 
would not be worth one moment's defence before this court. 
But I have a name which was without a blemish before I 
received that commission ; and that name it is my intention to 
defend. 

In the winter of 1845-6, I approached the settled parts of 
Upper California with a party of sixty-two men and about two 
hundred horses, in my third expedition of discovery and topo- 
graphical survey in the remote regions of the great West. 

" I was then brevet captain in the corps of topographical engi- 
neers, and had no rank in the army, nor did an officer or soldier 
of the United States army accompany me. 

" The object of the expedition, like that of the two previous. 



THK DEFENCE. 227 

ones, was wholly of a scientific character, without the least view 
to military operations, and with the determination to avoid thera, 
as being not only unauthorized by the government, but detri- 
mental or fatal to the pursuit in which I was engHgevl. The 
men with me were citizens, and some Delaware Indians, all em- 
ployed by myself on wages, and solely intended for protootion 
against savages, and to procure subsistence in the wilderness, 
and often desert country, through which I had to pass. 

"I had left the United States in May, 1845 — a yenr before 
the war with Mexico broke out ; but I was aware of llie actual 
state of affairs between the two countries, and being determined 
to give no cause of offence to the Mexican authoriiiys in Cali- 
fornia, I left my command at the distance of about t:\o hundred 
miles from Monterey, and proceeded, almost alone, to the nearest 
military station, that of New Helvetia (or Sutter's fort), and 
obtained a passport (which I now have) for myself and attend- 
ants to proceed to Monterey, the residence of the coinniandant 
general or deputy governor. General Castro. 

" Arrived at Monterey, I called upon the commandant and 
other authorities, in company with the United States consul, and 
•with all the formalities usual on such occasions, and was civilly 
received. I explained to General Castro the object of my com- 
ing into California, and my desire to obtain permission to winter 
in the valley of the San Joaquin, for refreshment or repose, 
where there was plenty of game for the men and grass for the 
horses, and no inhabitants to be molested by our presence. 
Leave was granted, and also leave to continue my explorations 
south to the region of the Rio Colorado and of the Rio Gila. 

" In the last days of February, I commenced the march south, 
crossing into the valley of the Salinas, or Buenaventura, and soon 
received a notification to depart, with information that Gen. Cas- 
tro was assembling troops with a view to attack us, under the 
pretext that I had come to California to excite the American 
settlers to revolt. The information of this design was authentic, 
and with a view to be in a condition to repel a superior force, 



228 LLFii AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FEEMONT. 

provided with cannon, I took a position on the Sierra, called the 
Hawk's Peak, entrenched it, raised the flag of the United States, 
and awaited the approach of the assailants. 

"At the distance of four miles we could see them, from the 
Sierra, assembling men and hauling out cannon ; but they did 
not approach nearer ; and after remaining in the position from 
the 7th to the 10th of March, and seeing that we were not to be 
attacked in it, and determined not to compromise the govern- 
ment of the United States, or the American settlers, who were 
ready to join me at all hazards, I quit the position, gave up all 
thoughts of prosecuting my researches in that direction, and 
turned noilh towards Oregon. 

" Disappointed in the favorite design, of examining the southern 
parts of the Alta California, and the valley of Rio Colorado and 
Gila, I formed another design which I hoped would be of some 
service to my country, that of exploring a route to the Wah-lah- 
math settlements in Oregon, by the Tlamath lakes ; and thence 
to return to the United States by a high northern route, explor- 
ing the country in that direction. In pursuance of this plan, 
and before the middle of May, we had reached the northern shore 
of the Great Tlamath lake, within the limits of Oregon, when we 
found our further progress in that direction obstructed by impas- 
sable mountains, and hostile Indians, of the formidable Tlamath 
tribes, who had killed or wounded four of our men, and left us 
no repose either upon the march or in the camp. 

" We were now at the north end of the Greater Tlamath lake, 
in the territory of Oregon, when on the morning of the 9th I was 
sui'prised to find ride up to our camp two men — one turned out 
to be Samuel Neal, formerly of ray topographical party, and his 
companion, who quickly informed me that a United States offi- 
cer was oil my trail, with dispatches for me, but he doubted 
whether he would ever reach me ; that he and his companions 
had only escaped the Indians by the goodness of their horses ; 
and that he had left tUe officer, with three men, two days 
behind. 



THE DEFENCE. 229 

"Upon the spot I took nine men, four of tliem Delaware 
Indians, coasted the western shore of the lake for sixty miles, and 
met the party. 

"^The officer was Lieutenant Gillespie. He brought me a letter 
of introduction from the Secretary of State (Mr. Buchanan), and 
letters and papers from Senator Benton and his family. The 
letter from the secretary imported nothing beyond the introduc- 
tion, and was directed to me in my private or citizen capacity. The 
outside envelope of a packet from Senator Benton was directed 
in the same way, and one of the letters from him, while appar- 
ently of mere friendship and family details, contained passages 
enigmatical and obscure, but which I studied out, and made the 
meaning to be that I was required by the government to find out 
any foreign schemes in relation to the Californias, and to coun- 
teract them. Lieutenant Gillespie was bearer of dispatches to 
the United States consul at Monterey, and was directed to find 
me wherever I might be ; and he had, in fact, travelled above 
six hundred miles from Monterey, and through great dangers, to 
reach me. 

" He had crossed the continent through the heart of Mexico, 
from Vera Cruz to Mazatlan, and the danger of his letter falling 
into the hands of the Mexican government had induced the pre- 
cautions to conceal their meaning. The arrival of this officer, 
his letter of introduction, some things which he told me, and the 
letter from Senator Benton, had a decided influence on my next 
movement. 

"Three men were killed in our camp by the Indians, the 
night Lieutenant Gillespie delivered his letters. We returned to 
the camp at the north end of the lake, pursued and waylaid, but 
killing two of the assailants without loss. 

"I determined to return to the unsettled parts of the Sacra- 
mento, and did so. Soon the state of things in California was 
made known to me ; Gen. Castro approaching with troops ; the 
Indians of California excited against us ; the settlers in danger 
as weU as ourselves, and all looking to me for help. 



230 LIFK AND SKKVICKS OF JOHN C. riiEMONT. 

" We made common cause, and I determined to seek safety, both 
for them and ourselves, not merely in tlie defeat of Castro, but 
in the total overthrow of Mexican authority in California, and 
the establishment of an independent government in that exten- 
sive province. In concert, and in co-operation with the Ameri- 
can settlers, and in the brief space of about thirty days, all was 
accomplished north of the Bay of San Francisco, and indejien- 
dence declared on the 5th day of July. This was done at 
Sonoma, where the American settlers had assembled. 1 wa.s 
called, by my position, and by the general voice, to the cliief 
direction of affairs, and on the next dav, at the head of 160 
mounted ritieraen, set out to find Gen. Castro, He was then at 
Santa Clara, on the south side of the bay, in an entrenched camp, 
with 400 men and some pieces of artillery. We had to make 
a circuit round the head of the bay, and on the 10th day of 
July, when near Sutter's fort, we received the joyful intelligence 
that Coinmodore Sloat was at Monterey ; had taken it on 
the 7th, and that vvar existed between the United States and 
Mexico. Instantly we pulled down the flag of independence, and 
ran up that of the United States. 

" A dispatch from Commodore Sloat reqiiested my co-opera- 
tion, and I repaired with my command (160 mounted rifles) to 
Monterey. I was ready to co-operate with him, but his health 
requiring him to return to the United States, he relinquished 
the command to Commodore Stockton. He (Commodore Stock- 
ton) determined to prosecute hostilities to the full conquest of 
the' country, and asked not co-operation, but service under him. 
He made this proposal in writing to Lieutenant Gillespie and 
myself. We agreed to it, and so did our men, the latter, as 
Commodore Stockton so emphatically testified before this court, 
refusing to stickle about terms and pay, giving their services first, 
and trusting their government, far distant as it was, to do them 
justice. 

" Commodore Stockton has proved the terms of our engage- 
ment with him, and that we became a part of the naval forces 



THE DEFENCE. 231 

un (er his command. I went under him with pleasure, I was 
glad to be relieved from the responsibilities of my position. At 
the same time I had no doubt but that the riflemen with me 
would have chased Castro, with his troops, out of the country, 
and that the Californian population might be conciliated. If 
Commodore Stockton had not taken the command and lead in 
the war, I should have continued the work as I had begun it, 
with the men of my topographical party, and the American 
settlers, and had not, and have not, a doubt of our success. 

" We (Lieutenant Gillespie and myself) joined Commodore 
Stockton and myself for the 2)ublic good, and with some sacrifice 
of our independent positions. Neither of us could have been 
commanded by him except upon our own agreement. I 
belonged to the army, and was at the head of the popular 
movement in California. The common voice of the people 
called me to the head of affairs, and I was obeyed with zeal and 
alacrity. Lieutenant Gillespie was of the marines, and was, 
besides, on special duty, by orders of the President, and no offi- 
cer of any rank could interfere with him. We might have con- 
tinued our independent position, and carried on the war by land. 
We judged it best for the United States to relinquish that inde- 
pendence, take service under Commodore Stockton, obey him ; 
and we did so. His testimony is complete on this point. We 
became part of the naval forces. We went under the command 
of the naval commander on that station ; and it was to the naval 
commanders there that the President had specially assigned the 
conquest of California. The California battalion of mounted 
riflemen was then organized, Commodore Stockton appointing 
all the oflBcers, myself being appointed major, and Lieutenant 
Gillespie captain. From that time we were part of the naval 
forces for the conquest of the country. 

•' I omit details of naval or military events, in order to come 
to the point which concerns me. 

"On the 13th of August, 1846, Commodore Stockto"n, as con- 
queror, took possession of the City of the Angels, the seat of the 



232 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

governors general of California. On the iVth he issued a pro- 
clamation, or decree, as such, for the notification and govern- 
ment of the inhabitants, followed by many others in the same 
character, and for the better government of the conquered 
country. 

" On the 28th of August, he communicated all these acts to 
the government at home, stating in the communication that, 
when he should leave California, he should appoint Major Fre- 
mont governor, and Captain Gillespie secretary. Four days 
before that time, namely, on the 24th o'. August, and in antici- 
pation of his own speedy return to the sea, for the protection of 
American commerce and other objects, he appointed me military 
commandant of the territory, and charged me with enlisting a 
sufficient force to garrison the country, and to watch the Indians 
and other enemies. In that letter is this paragraph : ' I pro- 
pose, before I leave the territory, to ajjpomt you to be governor, 
and Captain Gillespie to be secretary ; and to apjjoint also the 
council of state, and all the necessary officers. You will, there- 
fore proceed to do all you can to further my views and intentions 
thus frankly manifested. Supposing that by the 25th of Octo- 
ber you will have accomplished your part of these preparations, 
I will meet you at San Francisco on that day, and place yoii as 
governor of California^ 

" A copy of this letter, with a copy of all the rest of the acts 
of Commodore Stockton, as governor and commander-in-chief in 
California, was sent to the Navy Department at the time 
(August, 1846), by Mr. Christopher Carson, who was met by 
General Kearney, below Santa Fe, on the Rio Grande, and 
turned back, the dispatches being sent on by Mr. Fitzpatrick, 
and were communicated to Congress with the annual message 
of the President of December, 1846, and are printed in the 
documents attached to the message, from page 668 to 675, 
inclusively." ******* 

"It is then certain that, in November, 1846, the President had 
full knowledge of Commodore Stockton's intention to appoint 



THE DEFI•:^'CE. 233 

me governor, when he should return to his ship, to wit, by the 
25th of October ; and in his message spoke of all his acts in 
organizing a civil government in a way to imply entire appro- 
bation. At the same time that Commodore Stockton sent his dis- 
patches, I also wrote to Senator Benton, giving a brief account, 
for his own information, of what had taken place in California, 
and especially on the great point of having joined the American 
settlers in raising the flag of Independence, and overturning the 
Mexican government in California. It was done before we had 
knowledge of the war. I felt all its responsibilities, moral and 
political, personal and oflBcial. It was a resolve made by me, 
not merely upon serious but upon long and painful reflection. I 
wrote to Senator Benton, if my conduct was not approved, to 
give in my resignation, and sent a blank for him to fill up to 
that eflect. Happy had it been for me had the government then 
disapproved my conduct ! 

" And here it becomes me to state something, which justice to 
myself and others, and regard for history, requires to be known. 
A few facts and dates will establish a great point. 

" Commodore Sloat arrived at Monterey on the 2d day of 
July ; he did not take it ; he hesitated. On the Tth, he did. 
He had by that time heard of my operations, and supposed I 
had positive instructions. On the loth of July, Commodore 
Stockton arrived; on the 16th, Admiral Seymour, in the Col- 
lingwood, of 80 guns; on the 19th, the mounted force, under 
Lieutenant Gillespie and myself. Upon priority of time in some 
of these events probably depended the fate of California. Com- 
modore Sloat's action was determined by mine. His action, on 
the 7th, anticipated the arrival of Admiral Seymour, who found 
the American flag flying where it is probable he came p.epared 
to be invited to raise the British. 

" California was saved, and also the grant of the three thou- 
sand square leagues.of land to the Irish priest, Macnamara (all 
the original papeis of which I have, to deliver up to the govern- 
ment), was left incomplete, and the land saved, as well as the 



234 LIFE AND SEKVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

scheme of colonization defeated. Ilistory may some day verify 
these events,* and show that the preservation of Cahfornia, and 
the defeat of the tliree thousand square leagues grant, covering 
the valley of the San Joaijuin, was owing to the action which 
determined the action of Commodore Sloat. 

" I left Los Angeles early in September. The insurrection 
broke out there in the same month, and soon spread over all the 
southern half of California. It extended to near Monterey. It 
delayed Commodore Stockton's return to the sea, and deferred 
my own appointment as governor. Instead of being occupied 
in arrangements to be at San Francisco, on the 25th of October, 
to be placed ' as governor over California,' I was engaged, with 

* A Catholic priest, named Eugenio Macnamara, in the year 1845 and 
the early part of 1846, was domesticated with the British legation at the 
city of Mexico. During that time he made application for a grant of 
land for the purpose of establishing a colony in California. He asked for 
a square league, containing, 4,428 acres, to be given to each family^ and 
that each child of a colonist should have half a square league. The ter- 
ritory to be conveyed to him should be around San Francisco Bay, 
embrace three thousand square leagues, and include the entire valley of 
the San Joaquin. He agreed to bring a thousand families at the begin- 
ning. His object is stated in his memorial to the Mexican President, in 
these words : 

" I propose, with the aid and approbation of your excellency, to place 
in Upper California, a colony of Irish Catholics. I have a triple object 
in making this proposition. I wish, in the first place, to advance the 
cause of Catholicism. In the second, to contribute to the happiness of 
my countrymen. Thirdly, I desire to put an obstacle in the way of fur- 
ther usurpations on the part of an irrelig/ious and anti-Catholic nation?^ 

His proposal was favorably entertained by the central government. 
It was referred, for a final decision, to the landholders and local authori- 
ties of California. Conventions were about being held to perfect the 
arrangement. Macnamara was landed, from the British frigate Juno, 
one of Sir George Seymour's fleet, at Santa Barbara, just at this time. 
Every thing was ripe for a final settlement of the whole matter ; and 
by virtue of this grant of land to Macnamara, the whole country 
would have passed under British protection. — UphanCs Life of Fremont^ 
p 229. 



I 



THE DEFENCE. 236 

little other means than personal influence, in raising men from 
the American settlements, on the Sacramento, to go south to 
suppress the insurrection. 

" With a small body of men, hastily raised for the emergency, 
I embarked, according to Commodore- Stockton's orders, first, in 
boats to descend the bay of San Francisco, and then, in the ship 
Sterling, to go down the coast to Santa Barbara. We had left 
our horses, and expected to obtain remounts when we landed. 
Two days after our departure from San Francisco, we fell in with - 
the merchant ship Vandalia, from which I learned, and truly, 
that no horses could be had below ; that, to keep it out of our 
hands, the Californians had driven all their stock into the inte- 
rior, and that San Diego was the only point left in possession of 
the Ameiicans. I therefore determined to retuxn to Monterey, 
and make the^arch overland. I did so, and there I learned, oi 
the 27th of October, that I had been appointed lieutenant-colone 
in the array of the United States. It was now the month of 
December, the beginning of winter, and the cold distressing rains 
had commenced. Everything had to be done and done quickly, 
and with inadequate means. In a few weeks all was ready ; 400 
men mounted ; three pieces of artillery on carriages : beef cat- 
tle procured ; the march commenced, I omit its details to men 
tion the leading events, a knowledge of which is essential to my 
defence. We made a secret march of 150 miles to San Louis 
Obispo, the seat of a district commandant ; took it by surprise, 
without firing a gun ; captured the commandant, Don Jesus 
Pico, the head of the insurrection in that quarter, with thirty- 
five others, among them the wounded captain who had com- 
manded at La Natividad. Don Jesus was put before a court 
martial for breaking his parole, sentenced to be shot, but par- 
doned. That pardon had its influence on all the subsequent 
events ; Don Jesus was the cousin of Don Andreas Pico, against 
whom I was going, and was married to a lady of the Cavillo 
fjamily ; many hearts were conquered the day he was pardoned, 
and his own above all. Among the papers seized, was the origi- 



236 LIKK AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

nal dispatch of General Flores, which informed us of the action 
of San Pasqual, but without knowing who commanded on the 
American side. Don Jesus Pico attached himself to ray person, 
and remained devoted and faithful under trying circumstances. 
We pursued our march, passing all the towns on the way without 
collision with the people, but with great labor from the state of 
the roads and rains. On Christmas day, 1846, we struggled on 
the Santa Barbara mountains in a tempest of chilling rains and 
winds, in which a hundred horses perished, but the men stood to 
it to their honor. They deserve mention, for they are not paid 
yet. 

" We passed the maritime defile of the Rincon, or Punta Gorda, 
without resistance, flanked by a small vessel which Commodore 
Stockton had sent to us, under Lieutenant Selden of the navy. A 
corps of observation, of some 50 or 100 horsemen, galloped about 
us, without doing or receiving harm : for it did not come within my 
policy to have any of them killed. It was the camp of this corps 
which Captain Hamlyn passed, to give me Commodore Stockton's 
orders, which he found in the "camp of the willows," as said ia 
his testimony. The defile of San Fernando was also passed, a corps 
which occupied it falling back as the rifles advanced. We entered 
the plain of Couenga, occupied by the enemy in considerable 
force, and I sent a summons to them to lay down their arms, or 
fight at once. The chiefs desired a parley with me in person. I 
went alone to see them (Don Jesus Pico only being with me). 
They were willing to capitulate to me ; the terms were agreed 
upon. Commissioners were sent out on both sides to put it into 
form. It received the sanction of the governor and commander- 
in-chief. Commodore Stockton, and was reported to the govern- 
ment of the United States. It was the capitulation of Couenga. 
It put an end to the war and to the feelings of war. It tranquil- 
ized the country, and gave safety to every American from the day 
of its conclusion. 

" My marcli from Monterey to Los Angeles, which we entered 
on the 14th of January, was a subject for gratulation, A march of 



i 



THE DEFENCE. 237 

400 miles through an insurgent country, without spilling a drop 
of blood — conquering by clemency and justice — and so gaining 
the hearts of all, that, until troubles came on from a new source, I 
could have gone back, alone and unarmed, upon the trail of my 
march, trusting for life and bread to those alone among whom I 
had marched as conquerer, and whom I have been represented as 
plundering and oppressing? I anticipate the order of time, but 
preserve the connection of events by copying here from an origi- 
nal private letter to Senator Benton, written at Los Angeles, the 
3d of February, 1847, received by him in May at St. Louis, and 
sen t to the President for his reading, whose endorsement is on 
the back, in his own handwriting, stating it to . have been re- 
ceived from Mr. Christopher Carson on the 8th of June. 

"Had it not been for the treatment I have received, the secret 
purj>ose to arrest, the accumulated charges, the publications 
against me, and other circumstances of the prosecution, I should 
have been willing to have read that paper to the court as my 
sole defence against this charge of mutiny ; as things are, I copy 
from it merely some passages, which illustrate what I have said 
of the effects of that march from Montere}^, and the capitulation 
of Couenga. 

"'Knowing well the views of the cabinet, and satisfied that it 
was a great national measure to unite California to us as a sister 
State, by a voluntary expression of the popular will, I had in al 
my marches through the country, and in all my intercourse with 
the people, acted invariably in strict accordance with this impres- 
sion, to which I was naturally further led by my own feelings. T 
had kept my troops under steady restraint and discipline, and 
never permitted to them a wanton outrage, or any avoidable des- 
truction of property cr life. The result has clearly shown the 
wisdom of the course I have pursued. * * * * 

" ' Throughout the California population, there is only one 
feeling of satisfaction and gratitude to myself. The men of the 
country, most forward and able in the revolution against us, now 
put theu)selves at iny disposition, and say to me, '■'■Viva usted se- 



238 LIFE AND SEKVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

will watch over the tranquillity of the country, and nothing can 
happen which shall not be known to you." The unavailing dis- 
satisfaction on the part of (our)own people, was easily repressed; 
the treaty was ratified.' 

" ' I terminate my narrative at the capitulation of Couenga 
because at that point I got into communication with my two 
superiors, became involved in their difficulties, and the events 
began for which I am prosecuted. 

" From this point the evidence begins. My narrative, intend- 
ed to be brief and rapid, was necessary to the understanding oj 
my position in California, and brings me to the point of the par 
ticular offences charged against me. 

" Mutiny is first in the order of the charges, and the first speci 
fication under it is, for disobeying the negative order of General 
Kearney, in relation to the re-organization of the California batta- 
lion. 

" Governor Stockton gave me an order to re-organize it, Gen- 
eral Kearney sent me an order not to re-organize it; this on the 
16th of January, in the night. The next morning I informed 
General Kearney, by letter, that I though the and Governor 
Stockton ought to adjust the question of rank between them- 
selves ; and, until that was done, I should have to obey Commo- 
dore Stockton, as theretofore ; and gave some statement of facts 
and reasons for my justification. 

" This letter constitutes the alleged act of mutiny ; the ingre- 
dient of a corrupt motive, in trying to trade for a governorship, 
has been since added ; and now, let the accuser and prosecuting 
witness speak for himself. 

" On the fi^rst day of his examination. General Kearney testifies 
thus : 

"'On the day subsequent, viz., on l7th of January, Lieuten- 
ant Colonel Fremont came to my quartera, and in convei'sation, I 
asked him whether he had received my communication of the 
day previous ; he acknowledged the receipt of it, and stated that 
he had written a reply and left it with his clerk to be copied. 

'"About this time, h prmon entered the room with a paper in 



i 



THE DEFENCE. 239 

his hand, which Lieutenant Colonel Fremont took, overlooked, 
and then used the pen upon my table to sign it; his cZe;-^ having 
told him that the signature was wanting to it. He then handed 
it to me. At my request, Lieutenant Colonel Fremont took a chair 
by my table while I read the letter. 

" ' Having finished the reading of it, I told him I was an older 
man than himself; that I was a much older soldier than himself; 
that I had a great respect and regard for his wife, and great 
friendship for his father-in-law, Colonel Benton, from whom I had 
received many acts of kindness ; that these considerations induced 
me to volunteer advice to him ; and the advice was, that he should 
take the letter haclc and destroy it ; that I was willing to forget it. 
Lieutenant Colonel Fremont declined taking it back, and told me 
that Commodore Stockton would support him in the position taken 
in that letter. T told him that Commodore Stockton could not 
support him in disobeying the orders of his senior officer^ and that 
if he persisted in it he would unquestionably ruin himself. He 
told me that Commodore Stockton was about to organize a civil 
government, and intended to appoint him governor of the territory. 
I told him Commodore Stockton had no such authority, that, 
authority having been conferred on me by the President of the 
United States. He asked mc whether I would appoint him 
governor ? I told him that I expected shortly to leave California 
for Missouri ; that I had, previously to leaving Santa Fe, asked 
permission to do so, and was in hopes of receiving it; that, as 
soon as the country should be quieted, I should, most probably, 
organize a civil government, and that I at that time knew of no 
objection to appointing him as the governor. He then stated to 
me that he would see Commodore Stockton, and that unless he 
appointed him governor at once, he would not obey his orders ; 
and he left me.' 

" This is the evidence on which the prosecution rests the convic- 
tion, both for the fact, and its imputed base motive ; and at this 
point the defence begins, and will be directed at once to both 
motive and fact, with the belief of showing each to be untrue. 



240 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. 1- iiiJJilONT. 

" First, as to tlie probability of this testimony in all that imputes 
the dishonorable conduct to me, which is presented as the motive 
of the meeting. 

" I hold it to be improbable on its face, and self-evidently unwor- 
thy of credit. It represents me as coming to General Kearney's 
quarters without invitation, signing a letter in his presence which 
I had directed to be brought after me, giving it to him to read, 
and refusing to take it back and accept his pardon and oblivion for 
having written it. The writing of the letter was avowed at the 
outset of the trial ; the question now is upon what passed at the time 
of its delivery. The letter contained reasons which placed my 
refusal to obey his order on high grounds of fact and law ; the 
testimony presents me as descending at once from all those high 
reasons to the low and base proposal of virtually selling myself 
to the best bidder himself or Commodore Stockton, for a governor- 
ship. According to the testimony, the proposal was abrupt. 

" ' He asked me whether T would appoint him governor?' and 
this sudden ofter to sell myself, in a case in which the purchaser 
would be about as censurable as the seller, far from exciting 
indignation, seems to have been courteously entertained ; and far 
from being instantly rejected, seemed to be accepted, provided a 
little time was given for payment. 'I (General K.) then told 
him that I expected shortly to leave California for Missouri, &c., 
<kc., and that I, at that time, knew of no objections to appointing 
him as governor.' Thus, he had no objections to the transaction — 
only wanted a little time for perfbrmance. I, on the contrary, 
was for prompt work ; for the testimony immediately says: ' He 
then stated to me that he would see Commodore Stockton, and 
unless he appointed him governor at once, he would not obey his 
orders; and he left me.' 

" This is the spirit of trade, with its very language and action, 
with the clear implication that 1 immediately went to Commo- 
dore Stockton, and not coming back, had received the appoint- 
ment at once. Now, all this is too cool and quick. 

'* It is im robable on its face, especially coupled with the 



.A 



THE DEFENCE. 241 

fact that I left the letter in his hands, after his warnino- of un- 
questionable ruin, which now constitutes the alleged act of 
mutiny, and so put myself completely in his power, both for the 
fact and the alleged motive. The testimony is improbable. 

" Secondli/, I hold it to be invalidated on the cross-exami- 
nation. 

" This is the next point of view in which I propose to examine 
this part of the testimony. After his examination came his 
cross-examination ; and by means of that probe and sharp 
searcher after truth, came out many circumstances to invalidate 
the first swearing. Thus, the testimony opens with saying ' Lieu- 
tenant Colonel Fremont came to my quarters,' &c., the infer- 
ence being, that I came of my own head ; and, from the sud- 
den manner in which I opened the subject, the further inference 
being, that I came for the governorship ; and third inference 
being, from my sudden exit and eagerness to see Commodore 
Stockton, that my whole business was to see from which I could 
get the governorship the soonest. Now, if I did not come of 
my own head — if General K. himself actually sent for me, and 
desired to see me on business — then all these inferences, so injuri- 
ous to me, fall to the ground ; and the very first words spoken 
by the witness, though literally true, become untrue testimony, 
and impart a character to the interview which the truth re- 
quires to be reversed. Now let us see how the fact is. 

" On the eighth day of the trial, this question was put to 
General Kearney : ' Did he (Lieutenant Colonel Fremont) come 
of his own head (as your statement implies), or did you invite 
hmi ?' 

" The answer to that question was this : ' I have no recollection 
of having invited him to come.' On hearino: this answer a small 
slip of paper with a few Avords written upon it was exhibited to 
the witness, and this question addressed to him: 'Is this paper 
an original V Tlie word original was used on purpose to 
remind the witness of what had occurred on the first day of the 
trial, and to show the court that the implication theii gratui- 

11 



242 LITE AND SKRVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

tously raised against me as a person who would destroy originals, 
was about to receive a retributive rebuke. To this question and 
slip of paper, the witness answered: 'That is ray writing, and 
that is my note.' 

" The note was then read and was in these words : 

" ' jAHPAUr 17. 

" ' Deae Colonel : I wish to see you on business. 

"'S. "W, Keaexet, 
" ' Brigadier General,^ " 

" This settled the question of the coming, and not only showed 
that it was upon General Kearney's invitation that I came his quar- 
ters on that day, but that it Avas an invitation in writing, and to a 
husiness interview that I was invited, and consequently that it was 
his seeking and not mine that brouglit us together, and his business, 
not mine, that Avas the object of the interview. Tiie production of 
this little original worked this great change in the character and 
effect of the evidence ; it reversed the character of the coming, and 
destroyed all the implications arising from a voluntary coming of 
my own head, and for a purpose of my own. 

"But suppose this little original had been actually lost or destroyed, 
then the first answer of General Kearney, that he had no recollec- 
tion of having invited me to come, would have stood with the 
effect of an aihrmation that he had not invited me, and wor.ld have 
left in full force all the injurious implications resulting from a gra- 
tuitous visit on such an occasion, and with such a conversation 
sworn against me. 

"As I would have suffered from implications in the first state of 
his evidence, I claim the benefit of them in its corrected form; and, 
further, I present it as an instance of the infirmity of his memory-. 

" The want of recollection in the witness in this important particu- 
lar, I am instructed by counsel to say, goes to the invalidation of 
his testimony with respect to the whole interview. The circnm 
stance was an importarjt one. It was a key to ihe character of the 
interview : it decided the character of the interview as being at his 
instance or mine. It decided it to be a business interview, and that 
business his, and not mine. It precludes the idea of my coming to 
him for any purpose whatever ; it fixes the fact that he sent to me 



THE DEFENCE. 24:3 

for a pni'pose, and that not a common one, as he invited me to an 
interview, which was a private one, at his own quarters. General 
Kearney wa.s then in the crisis of his difficulties with Governor 
Stockton ; he was making a last effort to get me to join him. 

" The next circumstance of invalidation which I mention, arising 
from his own testimony, is in this statement : ' He told me that 
Commodore Stockton was about to organize a civil government, and 
■intended to appoint him governor of that territory.' Now, it ap- 
pears by his own letter to Commodore Stockton of the 16tli of 
January, that he knew that Governor Stockton was then engaged in 
appointing civil officers for the territory ; that, as to intending to 
appoint uie, I coidd not have said so, because I had been virtually 
appointed since September of 18i6, and actually commissioned the 
day before ; and finally, that Governor Stockton had made known 
to General Kearney at St. Diego, in December, that he intended to 
appoint me, and had so informed the government at Washington. 
(Ninth day's testimony.) 

"The next circumstance, to invalidate the witness upon his own 
swearing, is, what he saj's he stated in reply to the request to be 
appointed governor, namely, ' that he (General Kearney) at that 
time knew of no objection to appointing him governor, Avheu he 
left the country,' &c., &c. Time is the material point in this state- 
ment, and this point the witness has fortunately made clear both 
by collocation and cross examination. It is placed near the end of 
the interview, and after the act of meeting, with all its aggravations, 
had been consummated in his presence; and the cross-examination 
took place on the ninth day of the trial, and shows that it was after 
the supposed crime, for which I am now prosecuted, was consum- 
mated in his presence, that he was able to see no objection to 
appointing me governor of California. 

" From this it results that my conduct that day did not appear to 
be mutinj', or, that mutiny was no objection to his appointing me 
governor of California. In either event, I present the circumstance 
as invalidating his testimony, as it is impossible to reconcile the op- 
posite opinions of my conduct Avhich the declaration of that day, 
and tlie prosecution of tliis day present. 

"Tlie next invalidating circumstance which I draw from the cross- 
examination, is, in the difference which it exhibits to tlie first day's 
testimony in relation to this alleged .application for the governor- 



24:4c LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FKEMONT. 

ship, and the answer to it. The first day's testimony professes to 
give the interview fnll and complete, and in the exact words of 
each speaker; the cross-examination on the 10th day makes mate- 
rial variations. The first day's testiipony says : " He asked me 
whether I would appoint him governor ?' That is a single question 
as to the fact. The cross-examination adds another, as to time, by 
adding, ' and when ?' — and that led to a corresponding difference 
in the answer, by substituting ' a month or six weeks,' for 
'shortly.' The cross-examination of the same day, and of the 9th 
also, brought the fact of two material omissions in that report of the 
conversation of the 17th. One related to the fact of Lieutenant 
Colonel Fremont's urging him (General Kearney) to have a personal 
intervies with Governor Stockton, and expressing the belief that all 
diflBculties between them could be settled in such an interview ; the 
other, in bringing out the fact that I appeared to be greatly dis- 
treased at the differences between the two superior officers. Neither 
of these important facts are mentioned in the direct testimony, pur- 
porting to be verbally exact, and precisely full, neither more nor less ; 
but, not only are these points omitted, but, as told, tliere is no part 
of the conversation to which they could be applicable — no place 
where they would fit in ; from which the conclusion is inevitable, 
that some whole topics, and of a very different kind from these 
related, were forgotten in that I'eport of a conversation. 

"To be distressed at the state of things, between the two superi- 
ors, was a different thing from making dissensions between them ; 
to endeavor to get them together for the purpose of reconciliation, 
was very different from committing mutiny against one of them. 
Yet these circumstances, so important to the fair and just understand- 
ing of my conduct and feelings, are wholly omitted in the direct 
testimony, and only imperfectly got out in the cross-examination, 
without the topics to which they belong, and without showing a 
place in the reported conversation to which they could be api)lica- 
ble, or made to fit ; thereby implying greater omissions than have 
been discovered. As if to deprive me of the merit which these 
disclosures implied, the Avitness added, 'Lieutenant Colonel Fre- 
mont might have effected an interview between Commodore Stock- 
ton and myself; perhaps there were but few others at Los Angeles 
who could have done it.' 

" I certainly believe I could have effected the interview. Governor 



THE DEFENCE. 245 

Stockton had no objection to it, but General Kearney's sudden 
departure the next morning, without notice to me, frustrated any- 
such attempt at reconciliation. — (Tenth day's testimony, near the 
close.) 

" The next invalidating circumstance, drawn from the cross-exami- 
nation in relation to the same point, is, in not suppressing or endeav- 
oring to suppress, the alleged mutiny at the time it is charged to have 
been committed. 

" The eighth article of war, copied from the British mutiny act, is 
imperative that, 'any officer, non-commissioned officer, or soldier, 
who, being present at any mutiny or sedition, does not use his 
utmost endeavor to suppress the same, or coming to the know- 
ledge of any intended mutiny, does not, without delay, give informa- 
tion thereof to his commanding officer, shall be punished, by the 
sentence of a general court martial, with death^ or otherwise, accord- 
ing to the nature of his offence.' As a further test to ascertain 
General Kearney's opinion of my conduct on that day, the following 
question was put to him : ' Did you do your utmost to suppress the 
mutiny of which Lieutenant Colonel Fremont is charged witli being 
guilty in your quarters, and in your presence?' The judge advo- 
cate reminded the Avitness of Ins privilege to refuse to answer where 
he might subject himself to a penalty, but the witness did not claim 
his privilege, and answered: 'Nothing further passed between 
Lieutenant Colonel Fremont and myself in the interview, than what 
I have stated ;' (adding, the next day, ' to the best of my recollec- 
tion.') 

''This is clear, that General Kearney did nothing to suppress the 
supposed mutiny, and equally clear that he gives no reason for not 
doing so. lie was in his own quarters — in the house where his 
troops were quartered — and he testified that he does not think Com- 
modore Stockton would have used force. The inference is, tliat 
either he did not consider it mutiny then, or that he had some rea- 
son, not yet told, for not doing his duty. The former is the pro- 
bable one, because it corresponds with the contemporary declaration 
of knowing no objection to appointing me governor, and for the 
further reason that it appears, from his own evidence, tliat he gave 
me, in the month of March, several orders to execute, implying trust 
and confidence, and wholly inconsistent with his duty, under the 
eightli article of war, and wholly inconsistent with military usage, 
if he then believed me to be guilty of mutiny. 



246 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FKEMONT. 

" For these reasons, I consider his testimony furtlier invalidated 
upon his own evidence, drawn out upon his own examination. 

The next circumstance to invalidate the testimony of tliis witness, 
arising out of his own cross-examination, is what relates to the 
bearer of my letter of the 17th of January. 

" In his direct testimony. General Kearney spoke of him as being 
my clerk. As I kept no clerk, and knowing that Lieutenant Talbott 
had copied the letter, and that Mr. Christopher Carson had brought it 
to me (for in my anxiety at the state of things, and hope for some 
better iinderstanding, I went in such haste to General Kearney's 
quarters, on receiving his invitation, as to leave my letter in tlie 
hands of a copyist, to be sent after me), I undertook to turn his 
mind toward the right person, by asking who the person was who 
brought that letter. To that question he answered : ' I do not 
know. I had never seen him before; nor do I know that I have 
ever seen him since.' I then put the question direct : ' "Was not 
that person Mr. Christopher Carson ? To which the answer was : 
'I think not.' This answer terminated the interrogatories upon that 
point ; and, according to the evidence, tlie fact was established that 
not only it was not Mr. Carson who brought the letter, but that it 
was some strange person whom General Kearney had never seen 
before or since. The defect of memory became so glaring in this 
instance that it was deemed essential by my counsel to expose it ; 
and something, like a Providence, enabled me to do so. 

"Mr. Carson, the best witness, had returned to California; Lieu- 
tenant Talbott, who copied the letter, and sent him with it, was the 
next best witness; and he had been ordered to Mexico by sea. In 
passing some of the Florida reefs, the vessel he was in was wrecked, 
but the lives of the passengers were saved, and Lieutenant Talbott, 
with his command, had returned to Charleston. Hearing all this, 
an order and summons were dispatched for him ; he came ; and, 
being examined before this court, he testified to the facts that he had 
copied tiie letter at my request, and sent it after me by Mr. Carson 
to General Kearney's quarters. Captain Hensley gave corroborating 
testimony ; and tlius the fact established by General Kearney's testi- 
monj^, that it was not Mr. Carson who brought the letter, nor any 
person that General Kearney had ever seen before or since, was 
entirely disproved. Certainly the fact in itself, as to who brought 
the letter, was not very material ; but it became eminently so from 
the answers of the witness. For General Kearney not to know Kit 



THE DEFENCE. 24:7 

Carson; not to remember liim when lie brought the letter on which 
this prosecution is based ; to swear tliat he had never seen the man 
before or since, who brought that letter, when that man was the 
same express from Commodore Stockton and myself from whom he 
got the dispatches; whom he turned back from the confines of New 
Mexico, and made his guide to California; the man who showed 
him the way, step bj' step, in that long and dreary march ; who 
was with him in the fight of San Pasqual : with him on the besieged 
and desolate hill of San Bernardo; who volunteered, with Lieuten- 
ant Eeale and the Indians, to go to San Diego for relief, and whose 
application to go was at first refused, ' because he could not spare 
him ;' who was afterwards the commander of the scouts on the 
marcli from San Diego to Los Angeles ; not to know this man who 
had been his guide for so many months, and whom but few see once 
without remembering ; and not only not to know him, but to swear 
that be had never seen him before or since. This, indeed, was 
exhibiting an infirmity of memory almost amounting to no memory 
at all. 

" In that point of view I present it to the Court, and to invalidate 
all the testimony of General Kearney, witli respect to my words, or 
his words \n th:it alleged conversation of the 17th of January. Acts 
and facts are more easily remembered than words ; persons and 
things seen are more easily remembered than expressions heard; 
and after forgetting his own act, in writing to me to come to see 
him on business; after forgetting the fact of seeing the famous Kit 
Carson bring the letter which he has so long saved for this prosecu- 
tion, I am instructed, b}' counsel, to say that the law discredits him 
as a witness. 

" Thirdly/. Discredited by his own conduct. 

" I hold that the charge is discredited by General Kearney's own 
conduct at the time, in not reporting it to Governor Stockton or to 
the government of the United States. In neither of the two letters 
written by him to Governor Stockton, on the same day when my 
alleged offer to sell the California battalion to him for a governorship, 
accompanied by a menace of revolt against Governor Stockton, is 
testified to have taken place, is the remotest hint or allusion to any 
such transaction. Now, whatever may have been General Kearney's 
opinion of his own rights, and of the refusal of Governor Stockton 
to recogmze his claims, considerations of public duty ought to have 



248 LIFE AND SKKVICKS OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

prompted him, before going away and leaving the interests of •,«• 
country entirely in tlie liands of Governor Stockton, -with a knoAvn 
intention of j)rescntly committing them to me, ouglit to Iiave induced 
him to warn that oflicer of my conduct, and tlireat of sedition, if any 
such had taken place. 

" On tlie other hand, if considerations of public duty are not the 
motive that had influence with him, but, instead, his private resent- 
ments, these also, "whether against Commodore Stockton, myself, or 
botli, would equally have prompted him to the disclosure, had there 
been any to make; for, if after being informed of such insubordina- 
tion. Governor Stockton had still persisted in his intentions towards 
me (continuing my command, and leaving me in tlie governorship), 
the witness would have fastened upon both a corrupt intrigue and col- 
lusion; or, if Governor Stockton had acted upon the information, as 
would have been proper to act, and as he probably would have acted, 
namely taken away my command, and possibly seized my person, then 
that ' UNQUESTIONABLE Euix,' intimated as in reserve for me, would 
have been soon accomplisl.'ed. 

" Had that which is now charged upon me actually taken place, 
the suppression of the fact, at that time, when fresh and working in 
the mind of tlie witness, as it must have done, cannot, with the 
reasons and inducements which existed for its disclosure, be accounted 
for on any known principle of human conduct. 

"Besides these two letters to Governor Stockton of that day, both 
silent on this chai-ge, the witness also wrote to the War Department 
on the same day, and reporting both Governor Stockton and myself, 
as refusing to obey him, or tiie instructions of the President; and 
neither in that letter is there the slightest hint or allusion to any 
such transaction as General Kearney has now testified to. 

" Tliere is a case at the Old Bailey where a person was convicted 
and executed, mainly on the presumption which a very similar omis- 
sion to this raised. It was the case of Governor "Wall, tried at the 
Old Bailey, 1802, on a charge of murder, committed, under color of 
official duty, in the punishment of a soldier at Goree, off the coast 
of Africa, twenty years before. 

'^ The soldier was punished with eight hundred lashes, in conse- 
quence of which he died two days after. The defence set up, was, 
that a part of the troops of the garrison were in a state of MnTiNT, 
of which the soldier punished was the ringleader; and that the pun- 



THE DEFENCE. 249 

ishment was inflicted under the article of war which requires an 
officer present at a mutiny to do his utmost to suppress it. 

"Tlie prosecution j)roved that Oovernor Wall iceiit away from the 
place on the day following the alleged acts of mutiny^ and with him 
two officers ; and that^ arriving in England^ he reported^ in writing^ 
to the government concerning the affairs of tlbe garrison but made 

NO MENTIOIf OF THE ALLEGED MUTINY. 

" The lord chief baron, Mac Donald, dwelt upon that omission, and 
pointed it out to the jury. There was other evidence on the point 
of MUTINY or no mutiny; but it was nearly balanced, and this omis 
sion became the great point in the case. The governor was con- 
victed ; and notwithstanding the most powerful efforts to obtain his 
pardon, the king (George III.) refused to grant it; and he was hung 
at Tyburn, according to his sentence, and his body given up to the 
surgeons to be dissected and anatomized. 

"The presumption raised in the present instance is stronger than 
in the one I have quoted. There the report referred only to the 
affiiirs of the garrison generally ; here it relates exclusively to the 
subject now in issue. There, if there had been a mutiny^ there was 
no occasion for the action of the government ; for the mutiny, such 
as it was, had been suppressed and the mutineers punished ; here the 
report was specially for the action of the government on the case 
stated. There, the omission was merely a matter left out, not affect- 
ing, in any way, what was put in; here the omission is of the mate- 
rial .part, and without Avhich not only an imperfect but a false view 
is given to the whole. There, the letter was written six week? after 
the occurrence, and at a great distance from the scene of it; here it 
was written on the spot — the same day. All the reasons for General 
Kearney to have reported ray alleged mutiny, and the base motive 
for it in the imputed attempted bargaining about the governorship, are 
infinitely stronger than in the case of Governor Wall. The omission 
was a heavy circumstance against him in this case; it must be more 
60 in the present one; and authorizes me to say that the testimony 
of the witness here is discredited by his own conduct, at the time 
of these imputed offences. 

'■'•Fourthly. I now take a more decided view of this testimony in 
relation to governorship, and say that besides being improbable on 
its face, invalidated on the cross-examination, and discredited by his 
own conSuct, it is disproved by facts and witnesses. The imputed 

11* 



250 LIFE AND 6KIIVICES OF JOHN C. FEEMONT. 

bargaining fcr the governorship is t!io point of the mutiny and the 
base and sordid cause of it. Now, if there was no bargaining, or 
attempt at it, for the governorship, tlien there Avas no mutiny; and 
the wliole charge, with its imputed motive and inferences, falls to 
the ground. And, now, how was tlie fact? That as early as 
August, 1840, Governor Stockton, of his own head, selected me for 
his successor as governor and commander-in-chief in Oalifornia. 
Tliat he informed me of it at the time by letter, and also informed 
the government of the United States of it, and had actually fixed 
the 25th day of October, 1846, for his own return to his squadron, 
and for my installation as governor, and was only delayed in that 
intention by the breaking out of the insurrecticm. That he informed 
General Kearney of all this at San Diego, by giving him a copy of 
his official dispatch to the government to read; that, arriving at 
Los Angeles in January, he immediately proceeded to consummate 
his delayed intention, making all preparations for his own departure 
and for my installation, appointing me governor in form, appoint- 
ing a secretary of my choice, appointing tJie council, immediately 
filling up my place in the California battalion by promoting Captain 
Gillespie to be major ; and all these things done and completed by 
the IGth, and so known generally at the time, and actually known to 
General Kearney himself, as appears by his own letter, of that date, 
to 'acting Governor Stockton,' forbidding the appointments; and 
also by his cross-examination before this court. 

" The following are passages from the letter: 

'" I am informed that you are now engaged in organizing a civil 
government, and appointing officers for it in this territory.' ' If 
you have not sucli authority (from the President), I then demand 
that you cease all further proceedings relating to the formation of 
a civil government for this territory, as I cannot recognize in yon 
any right in assuming to perform duties confided to me by the Pre- 
sident.' — (Tenth day.) 

" The cross-examination of the same day fully sustains the asser- 
tion that, on the 16th, General Kearney knew that Governor Stock- 
Ion was appointing the governor and secretary for Oalifornia, and 
his letter to the department, of the same date (16th), shows that 
be not only knew it, but reported it. These facts disprove the 
assertion that, on the 17th, I asked General Kearney for the gov- 
ernorship of California ; disprove the assertion that I would see 



THE DEFENCE. 251 

Commodore Stockton, and, unless lie gave it at once, I would not 
obey his orders. The facts disprove it, for all the forms of bestow- 
ing the ai)i)()intinent had been completed the day before, wliile the 
appointment itself had been virtually and actually made for near six 
months before. 

"I will now proceed to the positive testimony of an unimpeached 
and unimpeachable witness, to disprove tlie testimony of Genei-al 
Kearney in relation to this governorship. 

" Colonel Wm. II. Russell, a witness introduced on the thirty-sixth 
day of the trial, testified that he was sent by Lieutenant Colonel 
Fremont from the plains of Couenga, about the 13th of January, to 
Los Angeles, to ascertain who was in chief command, and to make 
report of the capitulation of Couenga. I leave out, at this time, all 
notice of his testimony, except what relates to the governorship. 
He says he went first to General Kearney's quarters ; afterwards to 
Commodore Stockton's ; returned, by invitation of General Kearney, 
and supped and slept at his quarters. On his return the chief con- 
versation took place, and now the very words of the witness shall 
be given. Colonel Russell says : ' In that conversation he (General 
Kearney) expressed great pleasure at Colonel Fremont's being in 
the country ; spoke of his eminent qualifications for the oflice of 
governor, from his knowledge of the Spanish language, of the 
manners of the people, &c. ; and of his (General Kearney's) intention 
to have appointed him governor, if the instructions he brought 
from the Secretary of War had been recognized in California.' 
* It (the conversation about the governorship), was a subject of very 
much conversation, protracted to a late hour in the night. He told 
me of his civil appointments in New Mexico, and of his determina- 
tion to have appointed Colonel Fremont governor.' ' Ho said that 
so soon as he could organize a civil government, it was his intention 
to return to the United States, and finding so suitable a person as 
Colonel Fremont in the country to take the place of governor, his 
design need not be long postponed, I do not pretend to quote hia 
exact words.' 

" On the the thirty-eighth day of the trial, and after objections to 
certain questions to Colonel Russell had been sustained by the 
court, his direct examination was resumed, and he testified (after 
stating that lie rode out the next morning and met Lieut. Colonel 
Fremont, then entering Los Angel«s, at the head of his battalion), 



252 LIFE AND EEKVICKS OF .JOHN C. FJREMONT. 

'I informed liim (Lieutenant Colonel Fremont) that both General 
Kearney and Commodore Stockton were anxious to confer upon him 
tlie office of Governor, and his only difficidty would be in the choice 
between them.' ' Commodore Stockton informed me, on the eve- 
ning of the 13th, on my second interview with him, that he intended 
to confer tlie office of governor on Lieutenant Colonel Fremont, as 
I understood, immediately on his arrival at Los Angeles. I think it 
was a matter of ordinary publicity throughout the city.' ' On the 
morning, as I suppose, of the 16th, I was at Commodore Stockton's 
quarters, and he informed me that the commission for Lieutenant 
Colonel Fremont as governor, and my own as secretary of state, 
were then in the act of being made out by his clerk, and desired 
me to ask Lieutenant Colonel Fremont to be at his quarters by a 
given hour, when the commissions would be ready for delivery. 
I made this communication to Lieutenant Colonel Fremont, and at 
the appointed time returned with him to Commodore Stockton's 
quarters, Avhen he (the commodore) accordingly handed the com- 
missions to each of us. 

" ' I want to qualify here, as I am told there is some discrepancy 
about dates. I presume it was the 16th, because the commissions 
bear that date, and for the further reason that it was within two or 
three days of tho arrival of Lieutenant Colonel Fremont at Los 
Angeles.' This was on the direct examination. 

" On the cross-examination, on the fortieth day of the trial, the 
witness (Colonel Kussell) in reply to questions, confirmed all tliat 
he had said, and added : ' That in all the conversations I had with 
General Kearney on that evening 13th January), I understood it 
to be his wish to appoint Lieutenant Colonel Fremont as governor, 
if he could rightfully do so.' 

" And thus, I say that the testimony of General Kearney is dis- 
proved by the positive testimony of an unimpeached, an unimpeach- 
able witness, as well as by established facts. 

" Fifthly. I say that this statement, that I asked General Kearney 
for the governorshii), is disavowed by the entire tenor of ray life. 
I have neither begged nor bargained for offices. My first appoint- 
ment, as second lieutenant of topographical engineers, was given 
me by President Jackson, Mr. Poinsett being Secretary at "War, 
when I was fiir distant on the Upper Mississippi, assisting M. Ni- 
collet in his great survey of tliat region. My brevet of captain 



THE DEFENCE. 253 

■was giren mo by President Tyler, Mr. Wilkins being Secretary at 
"War, without solicitation frona myself or friends. Tlie appoint- 
ment of lieutenant colonel came to me in California, "vvhen I was 
not even thinking of it ; and I am assured by Senator Eenton, that 
it was President Polk's own act, not only unasked by bira, but that 
he refused to consent that any friend should name such a thing to 
the President. 

" The three appointments given to me by Commodore Stockton 
(those of major of the California, battalion, military commandant 
of California, and governor and commander-in-chief, in California), 
were all given of his own head, without solicitation or hint fi-ora 
me. Such has been the uniform tenor of my life in respect to 
office, and General Kearney is no exception to it. 

" The uniform conduct of ray life disavows the application which 
he says I made to him ; and I claim the benefit of that disavowal 
in a case Avhere a request would be infamous, which I never made, 
when it might have been done with honor. 

" Sixthly. Having shown that this testimony of General Kearney 
is improbable on its face, invalidated on his own cross-examination 
discredited by bis own conduct, disaproved by positive testiuiony, 
and disavowed by the tenor of my life, I now come to the last, and 
only remaining species of testimony — that of my own declaration. 
Happily I have no new declaration to make ; I have only to show 
tlie Btatement'which I made for the eye of private friendship, in 
the mere course of narrative, and as a circumstance in the history 
of the transaction, near twelve months ago, when the event was 
fresh, no question about it, and none of any kind ever expected. 
In that private letter to Senator Benton, already referred to, written 
at Los Angeles, and dated the 3d day of February, 1847, are these 
words : 

" ' Both offered me the commission and post of governor ; Com- 
modore Stockton.^ to redeem his pledge to that effect., immediately., ' 
and General Kearney offeHng to give the commission in four or six 
\ceel-s.'' 

This is what I then wrote for the eye of private friendship, and 
what I now produce to this court as my own testimony in this case. 
IT IS TEUE. And I now owe it to myself, to my friends, and 
to good men, whose esteem I desire to possess, to declare, and tc 
tuake the declaration upon responsibilities infinitely Higher thafc 



254 LITE AND SEKVIOKS OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

those of military lionor or commission, that Brigadier General 
Kearney, in all that lie has testified in relation to this governorship, 
has borne false witness against me. 

"I dismiss this topic, the only one in the multii)lied charges 
against me Avhich concerns my honor, with the rellection which 
springs of itself from the case and finds a response in every gener- 
ous mind, tliat General Kearney himself undertook to seduce me 
with this governorship, and failing to do so, has raised against rae 
the fjilse accusation of applying to him for it, and has sworn to it. 

" And I here close my defence, both as to the fact and the motive, 
of specification first, in charge first, for the crime of mutiny. 

" I jiroceed now to defend the same act under a different charge; 
for it so happens in this trial that the same set of acts are placed 
under different charges, some under two charges, namely, mutiny 
and disobedience of orders ; and some under three, the same act, 
in some instances, being carried out under the charge of conduct 
prejudicial to good order and discipline, as well as under the heads 
of mutiny and disobedience of orders. 

"I refer to a paper, heretofore filed, for the opinion which m.y 
counsel entertam of these multiplied charges upon the same set of 
acts. They consider them as so many different trials for the same 
thing, and wholly unjustified by the pragtice which admits less 
degrees of the same oft'ence to be found, according to the proof 
produced on the trial. Here the charges are on the -same acts for 
different kinds of offences, and the same evidence adduced under 
each, and the same that was adduced before the trial, when the 
charges "vyere framed, as before this court, when they are tried. 
My counsel instruct me to say it is a clear case of two trials and 
three trials for the same matter ; but I take no legal objection 
to it. 

"To save the labor of re-stating, questions, and of re-producing 
proofs as many times as the same specifications are repeated under 
different charges, I prefer to pursue each one, when I begin it, 
tlirough all the charges ; and thus finish with it complete, and have 
all my trials over upon it, before I begin with another. This 
method will be convenient to me, and probably no disadvantage to 
the prosecution, as it will get all the chances of conviction, which 
the multiplied charges require, though, perhaps, not in the order 
they would regularly imply. 



THE DEFENCE. 255 

"I begin Avith my letter to General Kearney, of the 17th of Janu- 
ary', wliicli he produces under the cliarge of disobedience of orders, 
as well as under that of mutiny, and as evidence to prove both, and 
which I produce as containing the facts and the law which disprove 
each. TJiat letter is in these words. (See letter of Jan. 17, 1847, p. 192.) 

"This letter was signed in the quarters of General Kearney, and 
in his presence, and delivered to him by myself. He read it in my 
presence, and has produced it here as evidence against me, and, in 
so doing, has made it evidence against himself. What he did not 
then deny, he admitted ; and I will show, from his own testimony, 
that that is the case with the whole letter. lie contradicted no part 
of it, therefore he admitted every part of it; and this results from 
his own swearing, in which he professes to give an exact verbal 
account, no more, no less, of all that passed at that interview, of 
the letter, from m}' entrance^ at the beginning, to my exit at the end ; 
and not one word of my letter contradicte<l in the whole account. I 
will now analyze its statements of law and fact, so far as they apply 
to this charge of disobedience of orders, and show it to be a com- 
plete refutation of the charge founded upon it. The letter is the 
text of my defence, and the development of its positions will make 
its leading argument. I am advised by counsel that it is complete in 
itself, and such as it was written that morning, needs no aid from 
subsequent reflection or legal advice ; and on that letter, as it is, 
both for tlie law and the fact, I stand all the multiplied trials which 
are founded upon it. 

'■'■ First. It fixes the time of sending the countermanding order to 
me — a most matei'ial point which could not be fixed by any exami- 
nation, or cross-examination of General Kearney. All the multi- 
plied questions put to him, and by all parties, the judge advocate, my- 
self, and the court, left the time of the day uncertain, and led to a 
wrong time, as being at some period of the day, and even the fore 
part of the day, of the 16th of January. (See 8th and 9th days of the 
testimony.) My letter fixes the time; it opens with fixing it. It 
fixes it to the night. The first line acknowledges the receipt of 
your favor (/. e. the countermanding order) of last night. No 
denial was made of having sent this order at niglit ; and thus that 
period was confessed. 

" Second. It fixes the character in which I myself was then acting, 
and a knowledge of which was so material to the case, and so dif 
6cnlt to be obtained from the prosecuting witness. It shows that 



266 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C, FREMONT. 

I "Was military commandant of tlio territory; and that the order ] 
was required to cease from executing was an order in relation to the 
battalion under my command as military commandant. It fixes 
the fact that the order came to me in that capacity; for so my let- 
ter asserts, and it v.'as not contradicted by General Kearney when 
read by him. 

'' Third. It fixes the character of Commodore Stockton in giving 
me the order to reorganize the battalion ; for it names him as giving 
the order, and describes him as governor and commander-in-chief 
in California. 

" Fourth. It fixes the fact that on my arrival at Los Angeles (14th 
January), Commodore Stockton was exercising the functions of civil 
and military governor with apparent deference to take his rank by 
General Kearney, for that is asserted in the letter, and was not con- 
tradicted by him. 

'•'•Fifth. It also fixes the fact that, on the march from San Diego 
tc Los Angeles, General Kearney discharged duties implying the 
supremacy of Commodore Stockton ; for tliat is asserted to have 
been learnt by me, from conversations with General Kearney him- 
self, and was not denied by him. 

" These important facts, five in number, are fixed and established 
by the letter ; for tliey were not denied when the letter was read. I 
am advised by council that the law takes for confessed Avhatever is 
said to a man in his presence, and not contradicted, at the time, by 
him. General Kearney's testimony, professing to give a fuU account 
of all that was said, on both sides, during the whole interview at 
the reception of the letter, is silent upon all these points ; and it is 
too late now to think of contradicting what was then, by all the rules 
of evidence, irrevocably admitted. That letter and its delivery iu 
his presence, and being read in my presence, besides containing the 
facts of the case, and the law of the case, becomes also the evidence 
of the case. If that order had not been written or sent in the 
night., that was the time for General Kearney to have said so. If 
the order had not been intended for me, in my capacity of military 
eommandant of the territory., that was the time for him to have 
corrected my error. If Commodore Stockton was not then governor 
and commander-in-chief in California., then was the time for him 
to have told me so. If Commodore Stockton had not been exercising 
the functions of military commander and civil governor., from the 
month of July preceding, then was the time for him to have contra- 



THE DEFENCE. 257 

dieted the assertion of it in my letter. If I liad not found the commo- 
dore exercising the samefunctions on my arrival at Los Angeles, tliree 
daj's before, "vvith apparent deference on the part of all othcers, Gen- 
eral Kearney inclusive, thatwas the time for him to have denied the 
assertion, or, at all events, to have protested against the inclusion 
of himself in that obedient and deferential class of officers. If I had 
not learnt in conversation Avith himself that, in the march from San 
Diego, and also there, at Los Angeles, he had not entered tipon and 
discharged duties implying, on his part, an acknowledgment of Com- 
luodore Stockton's supremacy then was the time for him to have 
told me that I labored under a total mistake in my misunderstand- 
ing of his conversations. 

" If there was no question of rajih then (on the 17th) depending 
between himself and Governor Stockton, he ought to have said so. 
If it had not been right for me to remain as I was until they 
adjusted that question, then was the time for him to say so to me. 
If the difficulty was not between the two superiors alone, then was 
the time for him to have cast it upon me. If I had ever reported 
to him, or received orders from him, surely it Avas the time to tell 
me so when he was reading that last paragraph of my letter, in 
which the contrary is asserted in the declaration, that I should have 
to report and to receive orders '■as heretofore,'' from Commodore 
Stockton. If all, or any of these points were not true, then was 
the tijne, and there was the place, and that was the occasion, to 
have denied them. Denial, omitted then, cannot be supplied now. 
And both law, reason, and justice, require my uncontradicted letter 
of that day to remain as established truth in the question between 
General Kearney and myself. 

" Clear and strong in its facts, the letter is equally just and legal 
in its conclusions. It does not refuse obedience to General Kearney, 
but defers it until he and Commodore Stockton adjust the question 
of rank between themselves ; it respectfully suggests to him that 
the settlement of the difficulty belongs to himself and Commodore 
Stockton ; and concludes with stating that until this rank is so 
■ftdjusted, I woidd have to report and receive orders, as heretofore, 
from Commodore Stockton. Now all this, I am advised by counsel, 
is both law and reason ; and to prove this law, and this reason, is 
now my duty before thia court. 

" I proceed to do it : 



258 LIFE AND SERVICEG OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

'■'■First. It shows that there was a question of rank admitted by 
General Kearney to bo depending between himself and Commodore 
Stockton. lie wished to settle it by giving me a contradictory 
order. I declined the responsibility, and I think rightfully. For, 
in the first place, it is not for the subordinate to decide between 
his superiors. He has no legal power to do so ; no legal power to 
require submission from the one decided against; and if he used 
physical force, it might indeed be a case of mutiny, and that in its 
proper sense of a military rebellion. Besides, decide which way he 
might, his danger would be the same. Having no right or power 
to decide between them — my duty being passive and not active — 
the only safe or legal course open to nie was to remain as I was, 
reporting to, and receiving orders from Commodore Stockton. I 
considered the question to lie between tlie two superiors, and that 
seems to be their own opinion of it, from their correspondence at 
the time (IGth and 17th of January). The concluding words of 
General Kearney's letter to Commodore Stockton, of the 17th of 
January (eighth day of the trial) are express to that point. Those 
words are too material to paraphrase or put oif with a reference ; 
they are these : 

" '■And as I am jjrepared to carry out the PresidenVs instructions 
to «ie, which you oppose., I must.^for the purjjose of preventing a col- 
lision between us, and j^ossiVly to 2)vevent a civil war in coxsequen'ce 
of it, remain sii.E^r for the pkesext, leaving with you the great 
EESPOXSiBiLiTT of doing THAT for which you have no authority, and 
PEEVENTiNG ME froiTi complying with the President's orders.' 

"This extract and the whole contemporaneous correspondence 
between the two superior officers, beginning at Sun Diego when I 
was on the march from Monterey, shows that the contest was between 
them ; and it shows also the serious point at which it had arrived. 
The time of writing the letter, from which this extract is taken, is 
now the material point, and that Avas sufficiently ascertained on 
the cross-examination of General Kearney on the eighth day. It 
was ascertained to have been written after ray refusal to obey him 
against Commodore Stockton. Tiie conclusion is inevitable. That 
refusal prevented the collision and the civil war which the letter 
mentioned, as being for the present prevented. I prevented it. 
My reward has been to have the war directed against myself, and 
to be tried for caiiital and infamous crimes, with base and sordiJ 
motives attributed to me. 



I 



THE DEFENCE. 259 

" The question now is disobedience of orders — the order not to 
re-organize the California battalion being tlie specitication. 

" In the British service, from wkose rules and articles of war our 
own are copied, and where there is a judge adv«cate general to 
direct court martial proceedings with uniformity, the character or 
qualities of the order, disobedience to which is criminal, are already 
defined." At page 89 of Hough, edition of 1825, is found this defi- 
nation of such an order : 

" In the absolute resistance of, or refusal of obedience to, a pre- 
sent and urgent command, conveyed either orally or in writing^ 
and directed to be obeyed with promptitude, by the non-compliance 
with which some immediate act necessary to be done miglit be 
impeded or defeated, as high an offence is discoverable as can well 
be contemplated by the military mind ; inasmuch as the principle 
wliich it holds out, would, if encouraged or not suppressed by some 
heavy penalty, forbid or preclude a reliance on the execution of any 
mihtary measure. It is this positive disobedience, therefore, evinc- 
ing a refractory spirit in the inferior, an active opposition to the 
commands of a superior, against which it must be supposed the 
severe penalty of the article is principally directed.' 

" From this definition of the kind of order which the rules and 
articles of war contemplate, it is clear that it is not every order, and 
merely because it is an order, given by a superior to an inferior, 
that entitles itself to implicit obedience. On the contrary it must 
have certain indispensable requisites to entitle itself to that obedi- 
ence ; and among these are: 1st, legality; 2d, necessary for the 
public service; 3d, urgent; by the non-compliance with Avhich 
some immediate act necessary to be done is defeated or impeded; 
and that the disobedience must be of a kind to evince a refractory 
spirit. 

" I have to answer that the order given by General K. possessed 
none of these requisites, and that disobedience drew after it no 
injury to the public service, and that my refusal to obey it was not 
in a refractory spirit. 

"1. It was not a legal order, and this for reasons which I shall 
fully show in the proper place. 

"2. It was a mere experimental order of contradiction, to try a 
question of rank, and against the public service, as the state of the 
battalion required it to be re-organized, the time for which many of 



260 LITE AND SEKVICE8 OF JOHN C. FKEMONT. 

tlie men and officers were engaged having expired, and to give it a 
major in tlie place of mj'self, made governor. 

''3. So far from being for tlie public service, it ■would seem from 
the sentence in General Kearney's letter to Connnodore Stockton of 
the 17th of January (already quoted), in relation to a collision be- 
tween them, and possibly a civil war, that the battalion was wanted 
for forcibly asserting his right to the governorship against Commo- 
dore Stockton. The letter can have no other meaning; and this 
interpretation of it is, moreover, borne out by his letter of the same 
date to the department, by his testimony before the court, and by 
the testimony of Lieutenant Emor3^ 

"4. The battalion was not, and never had been, under the orders 
of General Kearney ; was not such troops as his instructions con- 
templated, and several of its officers were from the navy, over whom 
he could liave no control. 

"5. General Kearney was, at the time of giving the order, sus- 
pended from the command of the forces at that place by order of 
Governor Stockton. 

" 6. If not suspended at the time he wrote and sent the order, 
tken he was himself in mutiny against his own commander, and 
endeavoring to induce me ' to join ' in it, and thus was in the com- 
mission of the double offence of mutiny himself, and endeavoi'ing 
to make another join him in it. 

" 7. General Kearney has not shown for Avhat purpose he gave tho 
order against re-organization, but it appears evident it Avas for au 
unlawful purpose, to wit, for the purpose of keeping the battalion 
together in his own hands to be used against Gov. Stockton. On 
his cross-examination (eighth day) he seems to have known nothing 
about what he was doing in giving this order, on which I am now 
doubly prosecuted. To the question : ' Did you know what was 
tke nature of the re-organization commanded by Governor Stockton, 
of the battalion under Lieutenant Colonel Fremont, and forbid by 
you ?' he answered, ' I do not. I learned that Commodore Stockton 
was about to re-organize that battalion, and I forbid it.' Thus, a 
battalion raised, officered, commanded, and organized by Governor 
Stockton, and being a part of his forces for the conquest, preserva- 
tion, and government of California, was forbid to be re-organized 
by General Kearney, without knowing what the actual organization 
was, or what the re-organization would be. He heard something 



1 



THE DEFENCE. 261 

•was to be done — he knew not what — and he forbid it. Surely he 
should tell what purpose he had in view. 

" 8. It was an order that I could not obey without rebelling 
against the authority by which the battalion was raised and from 
which I held my commission as its commander. 

" From all this it appears that the order not to re-organize the 
battalion has none of the requisites of an order entitled to obedience ; 
that it was not a lawful order ; that it was not intended for the 
public service ; that there was no necessity for it ; that no injury to the 
public service accrued from non-obedience to it; that the refusal to 
obey it, so far from being in a refractory spirit, was a mere determi- 
nation to remai" as I was, and as I had been, under Commodore Stock- 
ton's command until my superiors settled their own dispute. And I am 
now advised by counsel to say that that decision was legally right. 

' In opposition to all this, General Kearney urges, in support of 
his right to command me, j^rs^, his rank as brigadier genei-al ; secondly^ 
his instructions to take command of the troops organized in Cali- 
fornia; thirdly^ ih&i I had put myself under his command by re- 
porting to him on the 13th of January. I deny all three of his 
positions : 

"1. As brigadier general he had no right to give me any order in 
relation to Commodor^jtockton's forces. He admits this with re- 
spect to the sailors and marines ; also, with respect to that part of the 
battalion which was detached, and under the command of Captain 
Gillespie ; it was equally illegal to interfere witli that part of tho 
commodore's forces which was under my command. 

" 2. His instructions to take command of the troops organized in 
California did not apply to those raised by the navy ; they did not 
apply to such forces as I commanded, and of Avhich nothing was 
known at Washington when the instructions were given. 

" 3. His pretension tliat I put myself under his command by re- 
porting to him, and on which he mainly relies, is as unfounded as 
all the rest, but requires a more detailed and precise examination. 
He lays great stress upon this alleged reporting, and shall have the 
full benefit of his own testimony in support of his pretension. In 
his direct examination, he said : 'About the 14th of January, 1847, 
I received from Lieutenant Colonel Fremont a communication dated 
the day previous, upon the march, and dated January 13, 1846 



262 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C- FKEMONT. 

(presumed to bo written by mistake for 1847), and which I furnished 
togetlier with the charges, to tiie adjutant geuerah' 
" Tlie paper was read, as follows : 

' On the March, January, 13, 1S46. 
'"Dear Sir: I have the honor to rci>ort to you my arrival at 
this place with 400 mounted riflemen and six pieces of artillery, in 
chiding among the latter two pieces lately in the possession of the 
Califoruians, Tkeir entire force, under the command of Don An- 
dres Pico, have this day laid down their arras and surrendered to 
my command, 

" ' Very I'espectfully, j^our obedient servant, 

" ' J. 0. Fremont, 
" ' Lieutenant Colonel U. S. army^ and Military 
" ' Commandant of the Territory of California. 
" ' Brigadier General S. W. Keakxet.' 

" ' On the day of the receipt of that report (viz. : of the 13th Janu- 
ary), Lieutenant Colonel Fremont, at the head of a battalion of 
volunteers, entered the city of Los Angeles. On the 16th January 
an order was sent to him, relating to this battalion, by my direction, 
and signed by Lieutenant Emory, a copy of which I have furnished, 
and which I can identify if shown to mc. 

" ' This is a copy of the order furnishjj^ to hira by Lieutenant 
Emory. 

" The paper was read, as follows : 

" ' Hkap quarters, Ukited States Ahmt, 1 

ClUDAD DB LOS ANGELES, Jun. 16, 1S47. f 

" ' By direction of Brigadier-General Kearney, I send you a copy 
of a communication to hira from the Secretary of "War, dated June 
18th, 1846, in which is the following: "These troops, and such as 
may be organized in California, will be under your command." The 
General directs that no change will be made in the organization of 
your battalion of volunteers, or officers appointed in it, without his 
sanction or approval being first obtained. 
" ' Very respectfully, 

'"Wm. H. Emory, 
'•* ' Lieutenant and Acting Assistant Adjutant General. 
"'Lieut. Col. J. 0. Fremont, 

" ' Mounted Riflemen^ Commanding 

" ' Battalion Oiilifornia Volunteers,'' 



TKE DEFENCE. 263 

"On his cross-examination, General Kearney thus testifies in rela- 
tion to that battahon, and the brief note wliich lie treated as a mili- 
tary report for duty : ' The California battalion was under my 
command from the time of Lieutenant- Colonel FremonVs reporting 
to me on the \2>th of January.'' He, therefore, swears to the fact 
of my reporting to him, and also being under his command ; and 
this doubte swearing becomes the corner-stone of his accusation. 
Twice afterwards he swears to the same elFect, thus : '■I was a Iri- 
gadier-general in the army, and the accused was a licutena?it- 
colonel in it. I was in command of the battalion of the time'' 
(to wit: 16th and 17th). And again: 'J made no attempt to get 
the command ; the battalion was already under me.'' 

"In this way, and by dint of his own swearing, he gets me, as he 
swears, under his command, and thereby acquires the right to give 
me orders, with the resulting consequences of mutiny and disobe- 
dience if I did not obey them; and all these rights and consequen- 
ces flowing- from the word report, as found in my note of the 13th 
January to him. 

" Now let us see with how much truth and justice this is done. 
From the testimony in chief, at the opening of the trial, quoted 
above, it would seem that, of my own head, on the 13th day of 
January, I reported myself and battalion, in the military sense of 
the word, to Gena-al Kearney for duty ; that after thus reporting, 
and without anything else passing upon the subject, and after I had 
voluntarily put myself and my battalion under the command of 
General Kearney, I did, on the 17th, refuse to obey the order of 
General Kearney, in relation to said battalior:, and thus became 
guilty of two crimes — mutiny, for which I might have been law- 
fully killed on the spot; and disobedience of orders, for which I 
may be sentenced to be shot or cashiered, or otherwise punished by 
this court. 

" The first words of the testimony imply volnntaiy communi- 
cation. Tlietwords are: 'about the 14th of January, 1847, I 
received from Lienfenant-Oolonel Fremont a communication, dated 
the day previous, upon the march, &c., Avhich I furnished, together 
with the charges to the acjjutant general.' Tliis testimony presents 
a voluntary act on my part, a movement of my own head, unii\- 
fluenced by any previous act of General Kearney ; and so stood th© 
ca.se on the direct examination, on the first day of the trial. 



264 LIFE AND SERVICKS OF JOHN C. FREilONT. 

" On the seventh day the cross-cxaniiiuitii)u reached this point, 
and the recorded testimony shows aS folloAvs : 

'' Question. Did you, at Los Angeles, from the 10th to tlie 13th 
of January inclusive, address notes to Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont, 
and if so, how many, and for Avhat object? 

" Answer. Between those dates I addressed, I think, three com- 
munications to Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont. * * * jj^g 
object of my communication was to inform Lieutenant-Colonel Fre- 
mont of our being in possessioxi of Los Angeles, and having a strong 
force, &c. 

" Question. Were they ofScial orders, or familiar notes of in- 
formation in regard to impending military events, and desiring 
information of Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont's movements in return? 

" Answer. They were what are termed semi-official, written in 
a familiar manner, and of which I have no copies. I keep a copy of 
all my official communications. 

" Question. Did either of those notes give the information that 
Governor Stockton was at Angeles ? 

" Answer. I have no recollection of it. 

" Question. Did either of those notes, dated at 6 o'clock in the 
evening of the 6th of January, contain these words ; ' Dear Fre- 
mont : I am here in possession of this place, with sailors and ma- 
rines. "We met and defeated the whole force of the Californians 
the 8th and 9th. They have not now to exceed 300 men concen- 
trated. Avoid charging them, and come to me at this place. Ac- 
knowledge the hour of receipt of this, and when I may expect you 
Regards to Russell ?' 

"Answer. 1 cannot answer, but I think it highly probable it did. 
As I stated before, I kept no copies of those semi-official papers. 

" Question. Did you address the accompanying letter to Lieute- 
nant-Colonel Fremont, and at the time of its date ? 

," Answer. That is my writing and that is my note. 

" The letter was read, as follows : 

" ' Pdebla de LOS Angelbs, ) 
&unday, Jan. 10, 1S47— 4 p. m. f 

"'Dear Feemont: "We are in possession of this place, with a 
force of marines and sailors, having marched into it this morning. 
Join us as soon as yon can, or let me know if you want us to march 



or |, 



THE DEFENCE. 265 

to your assistance. Avoid charging the enemy; their force does 
not exceed four liundred, perliiips not more than three hundred. 
Please acknowledge the receipt of this, and dispatch the bearer 
at once. 

" ' Y(5urs, 

" ' S. W. Kearney, 
^'•'- Brigadier- General^ U. 8. Army. 
" * Lieut. Colonel J. C. Fremont, 
" ' Mounted Rifles^ Com.^ tfec' 

"Question. Did you also address this one to him, and at the 
time of its date ? 

" The witness, having examined the paper, said : That is my 
writing, and that is my note. 

" It was read, as follows : 

" ' ClTOAD DK LOS ANGELM, ) 

Jan. 13, 1S47 — 12 o'clock, noon, f 

" ' Dear Fremont : We are in force in this place — sailors and 
marines. Join us as soon as possible. 

" ' "We are ignorant of your movements, and know nothing of 
you further than your armistice of yesterday. 
" ' Yours, 

" ' S. W. Kearney, 
" ' Brigadier- General, 
" ' Lieut. Colonel J. C. Fremont.' 

" Question. Did you also address this to him, and at the time 
it bears date ? 

"Answer. That is my writing and that is my note. 
" It was read, as follows : 

" ' PUEBLA DE LOS ANOELHS, I 

Jan. 12, \Si1—Tu68(tay, 6 p. m. f 

" ' Dear Fremont : I am hers in possession of this place, with 
jailors and marines. "We met and defeated the whole force of 
ihe Californians, the 8th and 9th. They have not now to exceed 
300 men concentrated. Avoid charging them, and como to mo 
at this place. 

12 



266 LIFE AJ^D SERVICES OF JOHN 0, FREMONT. 

"'Acknowledge the honr of receipt of this, and -when I may ex- 
pect you. Regards to liusselh 

" ' Yours, 

'•'■ ■ S. "W. Kearxkt, 
' '■^'■Brigadier-General. 

" ' Lieut. Colonel J. C. Fkkmont.' 

" Question. Did you also write this one to him, and were the 
first two of the tive words {do not charge the enemy) underscored 
by you, as they now appear ? 

"AnsAver. That is my writing, and tliat is my note, and 
tliough I have no recollection of underscoring these words, T 
have no doubt but I did so. 

" The note was read, as follows : 

" ' CiDDAD DE LOS AN0KLE3, } 

January 13, 1S47— 2 p. h. ^ 

" ' Dear Fremont : We have been here since the 10th. I have plenty 
of marines and sailors. We know notliing of you, except your armistice 
of yesterday, signed by yourself. I have sent several letters to you, and 
fear they have been intercepted, as I have received no answer. Come 
here at once, with your whole force, and join us ; or if you cannot, let me 
know it, and I will go to you. The enemy cannot possibly have near you 
more than 300, most probably not more than 150 men. Acknowledge the 
hour of receiving this, and send back the bearer at once, and write but 
little, as it may get into the hands of the enemy, instead of mine. 

"'We defeated the enemy on the 8th and on the 9th, during our 
march. Since then they have been much scattered, and several, no doubt, 
gone home. 

" ' I repeat, we are ignorant of everything relating to your command, 
except what we conjecture from your armistice, signed by yourself. 
Success to you ! 

" ' Tours, 

"'S. W. Kearney, 
" ' Brigadier General. 

" * Do not charge the enemy. 

" ' Lieutenant Colonel J. C. Fremont, " 

" ' Mounted Hijles, cL'c' 

*' This is what is shown by the cross-examination ! The note of the 13tw, 
eo far from being voluntary, that it was actually p' lied and dragged o.*^ 



THE DEFENCE. 267 

of me by General Kearney, by dint of repeated, urgent solicitations, and 
afFectioiiate notes, all requiring information of my position and move- 
ments, and all concealing the fact that Commodore Stockton was with 
hira at Los Angeles, and his commander-in-chief. " Dear Fremont," four 
times repeated, and four applications for informations of him, show the 
character of the notes sent and the object of sending them ; that they 
were fomiliar notes of information, such as are written in all services and 
between officers of all ranks, and which are used for no purpose in the 
world except for the sake of the information they contain. But, while 
the notes show this, the cross-examination was impotent to gain the same 
knowledge, either of their number, object, or contents. To the question, 
How many of these notes? he answers three, he 'thinks.' \ot being in 
the habit of destroying originals, I produce him four. To the question, 
With what object? he replies that it was to give him (myself) information 
of his (General Kearney's) being in possession of Los Angeles, &c., &c. The 
notes being read show that, in addition to that information to me, they 
desired information from me also. To the inquiry whether either of these 
notes gave information that Governor Stockton was at Los Angeles ? the 
answer is, ' I have no recollection of it.' 

" The notes themselves being read, each one shows that the presence of 
Governor Stockton was not even hinted. The same four notes tell some- 
thing else very incompatible with the testimony of a previous day ; they 
tell Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont the force gone against him may be 3(X) 
or 400 men. In the previous swearing are these words : " And a small 
party under Don Andreas Pico — which party I have never understood to 
have exceeded fifty or sixty men — went to Couenga, and entered into 
capitulation with Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont. 

" From these notes, then, the great fact was brought out that the com- 
munication, presented as a voluntary act, was extracted from Lieutenant- 
Coloael Fremont by General Kearney himself; that instead of being a 
military reporting for duty, it was a reporting for information only ; that, 
instead of being an official communication, it was a familiar private note, 
in answer to familiar, private, and apparently most affectionate notes. 

" Upon their face they contradicted the swearing of General Kearney ^ 
audit is further contradicted by facts and circumstances drawn from him- 
self or from authentic sources. The direct testimony at the opening of the 
trial, says : ' On the day of the receipt of that letter, &c., &c., Lieutenant- 
Colonel Fremont, at the head of a battahon of volunteers, entered the 
city of Los Angeles." Xow, all the testimony agrees (and such is the fact) 
that on my entrance into Los Angeles with my battalion, I went direct to 
the quarters assigned it by Governor Stockton through Colonel Kussell ; 



2CS LIFE AND BEEVICES OF JOUN C. FKEMONT. 

then reported in person to Governor Stockton, and afterwards called on 
General Kearney. 

" That note so extracted from me, and so perverted, did not fetch itself 
to Los Angeles. Some person must have brought it, and did ; and that 
person was Col. W. H. Russell ; and he has given an account of his mission, 
and of his conversation with General Kearney, wholly incompatible with 
the present imputed intention of that note. On the 37 th day of that trial, 
that witness (Colonel Russell) was introduced, and the second question 
put to him (the first being only to show his rank in the Californian batta- 
lion) was this : ' Were you sent to Los Angeles, from the plains of Cou- 
enga, by Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont ? If so, at what time, and for what 
purpose ?' and the answer was : ' I was sent by Lieutenant-Colonel 
Fremont from the plains of Couenga, about the 13th of January, 1847, 
for the purpose of ascertaining who was in chief command, and to make 
report of the capitulation made on that day to whomsoever I should find 
in the chief command at Los Angeles.' The next question : ' Will you 
state how you executed that mission ?' Answer. ' I went to the quar- 
ters of General Kearney first, and inquired of him whether his arrival in 
the country had superseded Canimodore Stockton, who, before, had been 
recognized as chief commander. From General Kearney I learned that 
Commodore Stockton was still in chief command, and by him I was 
directed to make my report to the commodore.' This was the testimony 
of Colonel R. on that point on his examination in chief. On my cross-exam" 
ination (39th) day the following questions were put by the judge advocate : 

" ' Do you recollect General Kearney told you expressly that he was 
serving under Commodore Stockton, or did he say anything more explicit 
than, as was said by you, that Commodore Stockton was in chief com- 
mand, and you would carry your report of the capitulation to him ? 

" Answer. ' lie told me distinctly that he was serving under Commo- 
dore Stockton, and had been doing so from San Diego.' 

" Question by judge advocate. ' Was Captiiin Turner present at that 
interview '?' 

" Answer. ' I am not positive, but believe he was.' 

"On the fortieth day of the trial, the court took up the cross-examina- 
tion ; and, on this point, with the following results : 

" Question. ' When you were sent to Los Angeles, to ascertain who was 
in command, had you any orders what to do if you found the cliief com- 
mand claimed by both Commodore Stockton and General Kearney.' 

" Answer. ' My instructions from Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont were to 
proceed to Los Angeles, and carefully to inquire as to who was in chief 
command, and to make my report accordingly. No such contingency 



I 



THE DEFENCE. 269 

was contemplated, I think, by Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont, when he 
dispatched me on that mission, as the command being ckiimed by them 
both.' 

" Question by a member. ' Why did you first report to General Kearney 
rather than to Commodore Stockton ?' 

"Answer. '^ I bore a letter to General Kearney from Lieutenant-Colonel 
Fremont, in acknowledgment of one received by Lieutenant-Colonel Fre- 
mont from General Kearney, and for the further reason that we were 
totally ignorant of the object of General Kearney's being in the country, 
and my orders from Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont were that I should ascer- 
tain all about it.' 

" Question by the court. ' State all the conversation which passed 
between you and Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont on the subject of choice 
of commanders, after you returned and reported to him the result of your 
visit to Los Angeles?' 

" Answer. ' I met Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont at the head of his batta- 
lion, on the morning of the 14th of January (as I stated in my chief ex- 
amination), about five or six miles from Los Angeles, and told him I had 
had much conversation with both General Kearney and Commodore 
Stockton, touching their respective positions in the country. That I was 
satisfied, from what had occurred, that General Kearney was a better friend 
of his than Commodore Stockton ; but from General Kearney's own admis- 
sion, I regretted to have to give it as my opinion that we should have to 
look to Commodore Stockton .still as commander-in-chief. That 1 found 
Commodore Stockton exercising the functions of commander-in-chief, and 
submitted to implicitly, as I thought, by GeneB;\l Kearney. This was liie 
substance of my commimication to Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont ; and 
he, I think, with equal reluctance, at the time, came to the same con- 
clusion.' 

" This is the testimony of the witness who bore the note which is repre- 
sented here (and made the foundation of the prosecution against me), 
as a military report, to put myself and my battalion under orders of 
General Kearney, and actually so placing myself and battahon under his 
orders. 

" From all the testimony of Colonel Russell, it seems clear that Gene- 
ral Kearney undertook to gain me over to his side by flatteries, by ofler- 
ing the governorship of California, and by exciting resentment against 
Commodore Stockton ; and failing by all of these means to accomplish 
that purpose, he tried the experiment of an order upon me, w^ith the 
menace of ' unquestionable ruin,' which ruin, it would seem, he has been 
laboring ever since to efiect. 



270 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

" That this construction was not put upon my note at the time it was 
received, seems clear from ofTiuiiil cotpniporaueousacts of General Kearney 
himself. Thus, on the 14th day of January, he writes to the War Depart- 
ment, from Los Angeles, that ' this morning Lieutenant-Colonel 
Fremont, of the regiment of mounted riflemen, reached here with 4(t0 
volunteers,' &c., &c. No word of reporting to him, or placing myself 
and battalion under his command. Surely that was the time to have 
conimunicated to the War Department such an essential piece of intelli- 
gence. In the concluding part of the same letter he says : ' On their 
their arrival (troops from New York and New Mexico) I shall, agreeably 
to the instructions of the President of the United States, have the 
management of affairs in this country, and will endeavor to carry out 
. liis views in relation to it,' words which necessarily mean that he did 
not consider himself entitled to command until the arrival of those 
troops, or else that he intended to avail himself of those troops to 
obtain command. 

"The letters of the 16th and l^th of January, from General Kearney 
to Commodore Stockton, are significant at this point. 1. They are 
totally silent on the subject of my having placed myself and the bat- 
talion under his command. 2. They show the whole contest, up to the 
I'Zth, to be between the two superiors. 3. The letter of the 17th shows 
a shifting of the grounds of his claim to command in California, basing 
it on his victories of the 8th and 9th, and the capitulation of the enemy 
to me on the 13th. The words of the letter, significant of this change, 
are : ' As in consequence of the defeat of the enemy on the 8th and 9th 
instant by the troops under my command, and the capitulation entered 
into on the 13th instant, by Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont with the leaders 
of the Californians, in which the people under arms and in the field 
agree to disperse and to remain quiet and peaceable, the country may 
now, for the first time, be considered as conquered and taken possession 
of by us, and as I am prepared to carry out the President's instructions 
to me, which you oppose, I must, for the purpose of preventing a colli- 
eion between us, and possibly a civil war in consequence of it, remain 
silent for the present, leaving with you the great responsibility of doing 
that for which you have no authority, and preventing me from complying 
■with the President's orders.' 

" The value of this testimony, which would make me to have reported 
to General Kearney, and placed myself and battahon under his com- 
mand, must now be understood. I undertake to say there is no 
authentic modern instance of a note, as innocent in itself, and extracted 
from the writer under such circumstances, so totally perverted from 



THE DEFENCE. 271 

its meaning, and made the foundation of such a prosecution as I have 
endured. 

" If men are to be capitally and infamously tried for such a note, no 
one is safe in writing. 

" I am charged here with a great military crime. I should have been 
guilty, not only of it, but of an irtexcusable breach of faith, if I had 
made a report of myself and battalion to General Kearney, and so 
placed under the command of that officer the troops raised by the 
means and authority of Commodore Stockton, and by him intrusted to 
me. 

" I now close this defence to specification first, of charge two, for diso- 
bedience of lawful orders. 

" The second specification, under the head of mutiny, is for raising 
and attempting to raise troops, on the 25th of January, 1847 ; and is in 
these words. 

" ' Specification 2. In this, that he, Lieutenant-Colonel John C. 
Fremont of the regiment of mounted riflemen, United States army, 
being in command of a battalion of volunteers organized in California, 
■which were placed by the aforesaid orders of the Secretary of War, of 
June 18, 1846, under the command of Brigadier-General Kearney, did 
issue an order to Captain J. K. Wilson, at Angeles, January 25, 1847, in 
the following words, to wit : 

" ' Angeles, January 25, 1S47. 
*"Sir: Tou are hereby authorized and directed to raise a company 
of men to constitute the second company of artillery in the California 
service, and for that purpose are detached from your present command. 

" ' You will please report the number you will be able to enlist 
with as little delay as possible. You are authorized to enlist the men 
for three months, and to promise them as compensation $25 per 
month 

" ' Respectfully, 

" ' J. C. Fremont, 
^^^ Lieut. Col. commanding California force in U. S. service. 
" 'To Captain S. K. Wilson, 

" ' Light Artillery: 

" ' Thereby raising and attempting to raise troops, in violation and 
contempt of the lawful command aforesaid of his superior officer, 
Brigad er-General Kearney, of date January 16, 1847, and thereby acting 



272 LIFE AND SEEYICKS OF JOHN C. FRFMONT. 

openly in defiance of, and in mutiny against, the authority of hi? supe- 
rior officer aforesaid, by raising and attempting to raise troops, and by 
proclaiming himself to be, and assuming to act as commander of the 
United States forces in California.' " 

The same act is specification No. 2, in charge, for disobedience of 
orders — the orders charged to have 'been disobeyed being the order of 
January 16, 1847, against the organization of the California battalion. 

" I will consider both of these specifications together, and arrange the 
matter of defence under these general heads: 1. That I was, at that 
time, governor and commander-in-chief in California. 2. That General 
Kearney had no right to command the battalion at that time. 3. That 
the order of the 16th of January, 1847, besides being illegal in itself, 
had no relation to any other change in the battalion than the one 
intended at the time it was given. 

" 1. That I was then governor and conmiandcr-in-chief in California 
is proved by the testimony of Commodore Stockton, and the production 
of the original commission ; and his right to bestow that commission 
upon me resulted from his own right to constitute himself governor. 
Both acts were done under the law of nations ; and by virtue of the 
right of conquest ; by virtue of the orders and instructions of the Presi- 
dent of the United States, charging the naval commanders in the Pacific 
ocean, exclusively, with the conquest and civil government of California, 
until relieved under the instructions of the 5th of November, 1846. 
These instructions did not arrive until after the alleged commission of the 
act of mutiny and disobedience now under examination; and, when they 
did arrive, were never communicated to me at all. 

" I am advised by counsel, that the appointment of himself as governor, 
by Commodore Stockton, was a valid appointment under the law of 
nations ; and that upon the same principle, his appointment of myself as 
his successor was equally valid ; and that in neither case was the appro- 
val of the President of the United States necessary to the validity of the 
appointment, though each revocable by him at his pleasure ; and tliere- 
fore proper to be made known to him. This I am advised is the law; 
but being now prosecuted for mutiny and for disobedience of orders, in 
assuming and usurping the governorship of Calilbrnia, and it being the 
President alone who could order my trial in this case (accused .as I am by 
my commanding general), it becomes material to show that this appoint- 
ment, and the intention to make it long before it was made, was duly 
communicated to him, and, while not disapproved, was impliedly sanc- 
tioned, and never revoked. For the fact of the communication of the 
intention to appoint me his successor, I refer to Governor Stockton's olfi- 



THE DEFENCE. 273 

cial dispatch of August 28, 1846, from Los Angeles, sent in by Mr. 
Carson ; and for the fact of his comnuinicating the fact of his havnig 
uppointed me, I refer to his official dispatch of January 22, 1847, from 
Siui Diego. The first of these dispatclies arrived by the hands of Mr. 
Fitzpatrick early in November, 1846, and their general contents were 
noticed by the President in his annual message of December following, 
and in the reports of the Secretaries of War and Navy, and all in terms 
of general approval. Passages from this message and the'se reports have 
been already quoted, and require no repetition ; and from them and from 
the communication of Governor Stoclcton's acts as governor, to Congress, 
at the time by the administration, I assume it to be proved that the intent 
to appoint me governor was known to the government in November, 

1846, and not disapproved by it. The dispatch of the 22d January, 

1847, was received from Lieutenant Gray of the navy, in the month of 
April following ; and, so far as I can learn, his act was not disavowed ia 
appointing me governor. Even if it was, the disavowal could only 
operate from the time it would be known to me, which it never was. 

" The commission from Governor Stockton was in these words : 
" ' To all whom it may concern, greeting : Having, by authority of the 
President and Congress of the United States of North America, and by 
right of conquest, taken possession of that portion of territory hereto- 
fore known as Upper and Lower California, and having declared th« 
same to be a territory of the United States, under the name of the terri- 
tory of California, and iiaving established laws for the governm.ent of the 
same territory, I, Robert F. Stockton, governor and commander-in-chief 
of the same, do in virtue of the authority in me vested, and in obedi- 
ence to the aforementioned laws, appoint J. C. Fremont, Esq., governor 
and commander-in-chief of the territory of California, until the President 
of the United States shall otherwise direct. 

" ' Given under my hand and seal on this sixteenth day of January, 

r 1 Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and forty-severa, at 

[seal.] ° 

the Ciudad de los Angeles. 

" ' R. F. Stockton, Governor, dec!' 

" On this state of facts, I maintain that I was duly and legally gover 
nor and commander-in-chief in California at the time of the act done, 
which is charged as mutiny and as disobedience of orders, in the two 
specifications, under the two charges referred to. 

" 2. That General Kearney had no right to command the battalion at 
that time. 

" The facts and the arguments in support of this proposition are the 



274 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. I'KEMONT. 

eaine which have been already used in answer to specifications first in 
both the first charges, witli the adcHtion of arguments to show that Gen. 
Kearney had no more right, at that time, to command me, in my gov- 
ernorship of California, than he had to command Governor Stockton 
wliile in the same office ; and that, in fact, this prosecution, in the speci- 
fications under consideration, is notliing but a continuation of the contest 
whicli began at San Diego with Governor Stockton, and which ought to 
have been finished with him. 

" General Kearney claimed authority to command the battalion, first, by 
virtue of his instructions, and next, by the assumption that I had put 
myself under his command. I presume this latter ground has been 
effectually disposed of heretofore. The first one has received some answers, 
and has others to receive. It has been argued from the beginning — from 
San Diego to this place, and from December, 1846, to this time — that 
the instructions to General Kearney wore conditional : ' Should you co7i- 
qiter and take possession of New Mexico and Califorjiia or considerable 
places in either, you will establish temporary civil governments therein.'' 
Tliese instructions are evidently conditional, and only applicable to a 
country unconquered, and without a civil government. On the contrary, 
before General Kearney left New Mexico he h&A ^ positive'' (using the 
word of his order) information that all this was already done, and imme- 
diately acted upon that '■positive'' intelligence, by diminishing the force 
with which he had set out. He met Mr. Christopher Carson, bearer of 
official dispatches from Governor Stockton, and of private letters from 
myself, learned the true state of things from him, turned him back as his 
guide, reduced ' the army of the West,' with which he was to conquer 
California, to an escort for his personal safety in travelling through the 
country, and went on, as the sequel showed, not to execute government 
orders, already executed by others, but ( what is rarely seen in any 
mihtary service) to take from others the fruits of their toils, hardships, 
dangers, and victories. He took the bearer of dispatches, sent by the 
real conquerors, to guide him — show him the way — to the conquered 
country; before he arrived there, sent for aid from the conqueror, and 
received it in a handsome detachment, nearly equal to half his force, 
and after fighting an action with that aid, was four days upon a hill io-a 
state of siege, from which he was relieved by two hundred and fifteen 
men sent out by Commodore Stockton to conduct him into San Diego, 
where he was safe. This was not the conquest of California, nor was 
the plain of San Pasqual, or the hill of San Bernardo, the conquest of 
' considerable places ' in that province, so as to give a right to govern it. 
The subsequent operations were under the command of Commodore 



THE DEFENCE, 275 

Stockton ; and it is because he should appear as conqueror, in order to 
get a right under his instructions to the governorship, that the claim has 
been set up by General Kearney to have commanded the troops to Los 
Angeles, and gained the victories of the 8th and 9th of January, and, 
thereu[)on, in conjunction with the capitulation of Couenga, started a 
new claim to the governorship, on the assumption that he had just con- 
quered the country. This new claim is started in the letter of 17th 
January, 1847, from General Kearney to Commodore 'Stockton, and 
clearly shows his own views, at that time, of the conditional nature of 
his instructions. The letter has been quoted. Its eifective and apphcable 
words At this point are, ' As, in consequence of the defeat of the enemy 
on the 8th and 9th instant, by the troops under my command, and the 
capitulation entered into on the 13th instant by Lieutenant-Colonel 
Fremont with the leaders of the Caiifornias, &c., the country may now, 
for the first time, be considered as conquered, and taken possession of by 
us ; and as I am prepared to carry out the President's instructions to me, 
which you oppose,' &c., &c. 

" This extract shows General Kearney's own opinions of his instruc- 
tions at the time he wrote that letter, and that they were conditional 
upon the fact of conquering and taking possession of the country. It 
shows his opinion ; but, if the facts were not as he supposed, to wit, that 
he was commander-in-chief in the actions of the 8th and 9th, and that the 
country was then, for the first time, conquered and taken possession of; 
If these facts fail him as they do, then his new claim to command in 
California fails also ; and Commodore Stockton, as commander-in-chief 
on the 8th and 9th, becomes the second time the conqueror. That the 
rest may be well conceived, from the circumstances under which they 
were issued, as well as from their terms. 

" The navy had been charged, from the beginning of the war (and 
before it in anticipation), with the exclusive conquest, preservation and 
government, in California. In giving a miUtary officer orders to go into 
CaUfornia to conquer, &c., &c., the contingency that everything required 
to be done might have been already done, was too obvious to be over- 
looked, and would naturally be provided for in making the mihtary 
instructions conditional. 

" The naval instructions say : ' Previous instructions have informed 
you of the intentions of this government, pending the war with Mexico, 
to take and hold possession of California. * * * * The object 
of the United States is, under its right as a belligerent nation, to possess 
itself entirely of Upper California. * * * The object of the 
United States has reference to ultimate peace with Mexico ; and if, at 



276 LIFE A2s^D 6ERA-ICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

that peace, the basis of the 2iti possidetis shall be established, the govern- 
ment expects, through your forces, to be in actual possession of Upper 
California. * * * Tliis will bring with it the necessity of a civil 
administration. Such a government should be established under your 
protection. » * * For your further instruction, I inclose to you a copy 
of confidential instructions from the War Department to Brigadier General 
Kearney, who is ordered overland to California. You will also communicate 
your instructions to him, and inform him that they have the sanction of 
the President.' 

" These instructions were not received by Commodore Stockton, but 
wei'e anticipated by him, and this anticipaiion obtained for him the 
express approbation of the President. The dispatch of the 5th of 
November, from the Secretary of the Navy to the commodore, contained 
this clause in reference to his operations in California : ' And it is highly 
gratifying that so much has been done in anticipation of the orders which 
have been transmitted.' 

" This was written near four months after the transmission of the orders 
of July 12, and is a full ratification of all that had been done in antici- 
pation of them. 

But a higher view remains to be taken of the conditional character of 
the instructions to General Kearney, a view which involves their absolute 
repeal and nullity, unless understood conditionally ; and I am advised by 
counsel that even that understanding of them cannot save them from the 
fate of total abrogation until subsequently revived by the instructions of 
the 5th of November, 1846. A few dates and facts establish this view. 
The instructions to General Kearney, on which he relies for his authority, 
are dated the 3rd and 18th of June, 1846. Now, it so happens that, on 
the 12th day of July, in the month following, instructions of the most 
peremptory character were dispatched to Commodore Sloat to conquer, 
hold, and govern California, and to let General Kearney know of these 
instructions, and that they had the sanction of the President. Here are 
extracts from the orders to Commodore Sloat ; and, although they did 
not reach his hands, nor those of his successor. Commodore Stockton, 
until after the country was conquered, yet, I am advised to say, their 
effect is the same upon this prosecution. This is not case of an officer 
prosecuted for not obeying instructions, in which case it must be shown 
they came to his hands ; but it is a prosecution against me, as successor 
to Governor Stockton, for doing what the instructions commanded. In 
this case, the anticipation of the orders is an additional merit in comply- 
ing with them ; and such is the case with the orders in question. 

" These instructions are near a month later than those to General 



'4 



THE DEFENCE. 277 

Kearney, and not only especially confide the conquest, preservation, and 
civil government of California to the naval commanders, but require the 
naval forces to hold the country till the peace, and direct General Kearney 
to be informed accordingly ; and further informed that all this instruc- 
tion to the naval commanders had the sanction of the President. 

" I, with the battalion I commanded, was part of the naval force to 
which this duty was confided. (Commodore Stockton's testimony, 37th 
day.) This "order remained in force until the instructions of the 5th of 
November arrived in Cahfornia, which was not until the 13th day of 
February, 1847, and which were never communicated to me, and op 

WHICH I REMAINED TOTALLY IGNORANT TILL SINCE THE COMMENCEMENT 

OF THIS TRIAL. Neither General Kearney, Commodore Shubrick, or 
Commodore Biddle, communicated them to me, although I was then 
governor and commander-in-chief in California, under the commission of 
Commodore Stockton, to whom the instructions of the 5th of November 
were addressed ; nor were they communicated to Commodore Stockton 
himself, until more than a month after they had been received. They 
were evidently concealed from me, for a purpose not yet explained. By 
these instructions the military and civil duties, confided to the navy, 
were transferred to the commanding officer on land ; another proof that 
the land-officer did not then possess them, and that officer was specially 
named as General Kearney or Colonel Mason. 

" The instruction says : ' The President has deemed it best, for the 
public interests, to invest the military officer commanding with the 
direction of the operations on land, and with the admiyiistrative functions 
of government over the people and territory occupied by us. You will 
relinquixh to Colonel Mason, or to General Kearney, if the latter shall 
arrive before you have done so, the entire control over these matters, 
and ' turn over ' to him all papers necessary to the performance of his 
-duties. If officers of the navy are employed in the performance of civil 
or military duties, you will withdraw or continue them, at your discre- 
tion, taking care to put them to their appropriate duty in the squadron, 
if the army officer commanding does not wish their services on land.' 

" Until this dispatch was received by the naval commanders, those 
of July the 12th abrogating those to General Kearney, remained in full 
force ; and it was only by virtue of these orders, of the 5th of November, 
that he acquired the command, militarily or civilly, in California. And 
it is in evidence that Commodore Shubrick had received these instruc- 
tions, of the rith of July, at the time that General Kearney visited him 
at Slonterey, and had consultations with him, and was sent by him in a 
ship to Ycrva Buena, and that he made known to General Kearney, at 



278 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

that time, that the naval conimnnders were charged with the whole con- 
quest, defence and government of California ; and that they (General 
Kearney and Commodore Shuhrick) mutually agreed not to disturb the 
existing state of affairs until the government had further been heard from. 

" It is clear that the instructions to the different branches of the ser- 
vice were not properly consistent, and that concurrences might have 
arisen under them that would have necessarily produced a conflict of 
authority ; but it is also clear that it was the intent of the government 
tliat the right and duty of the navy to conquer, preserve and govern 
California should remain complete and entire until the arrival of the 
instructions of November 5th, and that no concurrence did arise that, 
under the plain interpretation of the army instructions, could justify a 
collision. All this is fairly stated by the Secretary of the Navy, Mr. 
Mason, under the express orders of the President, in a dispatch of the 
14th of June, 1S47, directed to the naval commanding officer on the 
California station. 

" That dispatch'contains these passages : 

" ' The misapprehension between the commanding officers of the arrny 
and navy in California, which is mentioned in the letter of Commodore 
Sbubrick, above referred to, must long since have been removed by the 
very explicit instructions which have since been received in that country. 
* * * * At the commencement of the war with Mexico 
the United States had no military force in California of any description 
whatever, and the conquest of that country was from necessity, therefore, 
devolved exclusively %ipon the navy. * * The conquest brought 
with it the necessity of a temporary civil government, and, on the 12th 
of July, 184G, Commodore Sloat was informed that such a government 
should be established render his protection. Contrary to all expectation this 
dispatch did not reach California until the arrival there of General Kearney 

" ' On the 5th of November, 1846, Commodore Stockton was informed 
that the President has deemed it best for the public interests to invest 
the military officer commanding with the direction of the operations on 
land, and ^vith the administrative functions over the people and territory 
occupied by us. He was also directed to relinquish to Colonel Mason, or 
to General Kearney, if the latter should arrive before he had done so, the 
entire control over these matters, and to tura over to him all papers 
necessary to the performance of his duties. It was believed that even 
this dispatch might anticipate the arrival in California of General 
Kearney. 

" ' Similar instructions were communicated to Commodore Stock 



THE DEFENCE. 279 

ton under date of January 14, 184Y, and were renewed to Commodore 
Shubrick under date of May 10, 1847. A copy of these last instruc- 
tions, which on this subject are very full and distinct, are herewith 
enclosed.' 

" All these dispatches were .too late. The mischief was all done before 
they arrived, and they leave the naval officers completely justified, and 
General Kearney wholly without excuse for attempting to make himself 
governor of California in a case not contemplated by his instructions, 
and in which he would have to commence with disorganizing an esta- 
blished civil government before he could begin to organize one. His 
whole conduct, from the day he met Mr. Carson, was contrary to the 
intent and meaning of his instructions. He was to conquer California ; 
it was already conquered. He was to establish a civil government ; it 
was already done. He was to lead an army to California ; he took only 
a personal escort. He turned back two-thirds of his dragoons ; he 
should have turned back the whole, and himself with them. He should 
not have applied to Governor Stockton to send him aid to San Pasqual, 
and to the hill of San Bernardo, if he intended to contend with him for 
supremacy after he got there. He should not have attempted to found a 
claim to the governorship on the victories of the 8th and 9th of January, 
after the refutation of his claim by Commodore Stockton at San Diego. 
He should not have pretended to have been commander-in-chief on the 
march to Los Angeles, in order to found upon it a claim to the governor- 
ship in right of conquest. He should not, even if the letter of his 
instructions had borne him out (which they did not), have attempted to 
take the fruits of conquest from those who had conquered the country 
before he came to it, and without whose helping hand he could not have 
got to it. 

" I have now made clear the right of Governor Stockton, under whom 
I held the governorship of California at the time of the act done, which 
is charged in the specifications under examination to be governor him- 
self, upon his own assumption of the office, and afterwards to appoint 
me his successor ; and that these governorships were valid under the 
law of nations, until disapproved by the President, or the incumbents in 
some way lawfully relieved or discharged. Having done this, I am 
instructed by counsel to resume my original position, as in the letter of 
the 17th January, in declaring that all this difficulty in California was a 
question between my two superiors, which should have been settled by 
the government between them, and not settled in my person by trying 
me for mutiny and disobedience against one of them — charges to which 
I might have been well exposed in disobeying the other. And I am fur- 



280 lifp: and skrvici s of joirx c. iremont. 

tlicr inntnicted by counsel to renew, and to repeat, in the most soleiiia 
manner, the Protest heretofore filed in the War Office by them, in my 
name, against the illlkoality and injdstick of thus trying me for the 
acts of Commodore Stockton and General Kearney, or for declining the 
responsibility of settling their disputes of authority. 

" 2. The second head of my defence, in answer to these two specifica- 
tions is, that General Kearney at that time had no right to command the 
battalion to which the order of the 16th of January was applicable. Tho 
argument heretofore made on this point, is referred to without repeating 
it, to show that this battalion was part of the naval forces under Com- 
modore S'ockton, and that it was my duty, as slated in my letter of 
the 17th of January, to continue to receive orders from him in relatiou 
to it. 

" 3. The third head of my defence to these two specifications is, that 
the order of the 16th of January, 1847, besides being illegal in itself, 
had no relation to any other change in the battalion than the changes 
intended at the time it was given. This illegality has been heretofore 
shown, both as being issued without authority by General Kearney, but 
also because it was in positive violation of the rights of the men, most 
of whom had engaged for the expedition alone, and that being over, 
were entitled, by their contract and by law, to their discharge. Many 
■were accordingly discharged, and others engaged, and all for the neces- 
sary service of the country, and under my authority as governor and 
commander-in-chief. The nullity of the order, as being founded on the 
familiar note of information extracted from me by General Kearney, and 
perverted into a military official report, placing myself and the battalion 
under his command, has heretofore been shown ; and the ftxcts and argu- 
ments adduced on that point are now referred to, without being repeated, 
as applicable to this order of the 16th of January, at its present repro- 
duction, and as often as it shall be produced hereafter. Illegal' and null 
as it was for the purpose of its issue, it is clear this order had no rela- 
tion, at the time it issued, to anything but the re-organization then 
intended, and which resulted from discharges proper to be made, and 
promoting Captain Gillespie into my place, I being that day commis- 
sioned as governor and commander-in-chief, to take effect on Commodore 
Stockton's departure. The circumstances of the order, delivered in the 
night, limited it to that immediate impending operation. The charges, 
as preferred by General Kearney, so limited it, he having testified before 
this court that he preferred but a single charge (understood to be 
mutiny) ; that these were not his charges ; that they had been changed. 
This can only mean that he has not extended the order of the 16th of 



THE DEFEKCE. 281 

January to subsequent acts — to changes subsequently made in the bat- 
taUon. With this corresponds his testimony before this court (9th day, 
near the close), that he left no orders for me when he left Los Anjjeles. 
The question then put to General Kearney on this point was, ' Bid you 
leave anif orders for Lieut snnnt- Colonel Fremont, or take leave of him, 
or give notice to him of your going away, or let him know where yo^t icere 
going r The answer is, ' I did not ;' this answer applying categorically 
and negatively to all four points of the interrogatory, and establishing 
the fact that General Kearney left Los Angeles without leaving any orders 
for me, without taking leave of me, without giving me notice that he 
was going away, and without letting me know where he M'as going ; and 
I am instructed by counsel to say, that it is carrying the doctrine of 
constructive criminality rather too far (even if General Kearney had been 
my lawful and acknowledged commander), to construe into the crimes of 
mutiny and disobedience of orders, and of conduct prejudicial to good 
order and discipline, any act done after he was gone, when I had no pos- 
sible guide but my own discretion. 

" Specification 3, under the charge of mutiny, and also for disobedi- 
ence of orders, is, for the order of Louis McLane, Esq., of the United 
States navy, in his character of major of artillery in the California ser 
vice, to make further enlistments, and to examine into the defences of 
the country. The answer to this specification is the same as heretofore, 
both with respect to General Kearney's authority, and my own right? 
and duties as governor and commander-in-chief in California, and the 
nullity and inapplicability of the order of January 16th, 18-17. 

" Specification 4, under the charge of mutiny, is based on the le'ter 
of February 7th, 1847, to Commodore Shubrick — a letter which is set out 
in full in the specification. 

" The offence imputed is twofold ; first, mutiny, in assuming to be 
governor ; and second, mutiny, in endeavoring to entice Commodore 
Shubrick to countenance and abet me. 

"The letter was written in answer to one from Commodore Shubrick 
to me, and I received another in reply ; that in reply I will now intro- 
duce, to show that at least Commodore Shubrick himself did not look 
upon what I had written in the light in which the ingenuity of this prose- 
cution has contrived to represent it. 

" ' TT. S. Ship Independence, ) 

Haiibor of Monterey, February 13, 1847. ) 

" * Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 
the 7th instant, and shall detain your courier as short a time as possible 



282 LIFE AND 6EUVICE3 OF JOHN C. FRKMONT. 

for my answer, and will iilso avail myself of your kind offer, to forward 
dispatches to the United States. 

" ' When I wrote to you on the 25th ultimo, I was not informed of the 
arrival of Brigadier General Kearney in California, and addressed you as 
the senior officer of the army in the territory ; on the '28th, however, 
Laving understood that the general was at Los Angeles, I addressed a 
similar letter to him. 

" ' On the 8th instant. General Kearney arrived in this harbor, in the 
sloop-of-war, Cyane, and left by the same conveyance on the 11th, for 
San Francisco. While the general was here, we consulted fully, as en- 
joined on me by my instructions, and on him by his, on the measures 
necessary to be taken by us for the security of the territory of Califor- 
nia. 

" ' I am looking daily for the arrival of Commodore Stockton in this 
harbor, when I shall, of course, receive from him a full account of the 
measures taken by him while in command of the squadron. 

" ' It is to be hoped that the pleasure of the President of the United 
States on the subject of the organization of a civil government, and of 
the measures taken by Commodore Stockton and yourself, may be soon 
known, and it will give me pleasure at all times to co-operate with the 
civil government, as well as with the miUtary commander-in-chief, for the 
peace and security of the territory. 

" ' I regret to say that, not anticipating any unusual draft on them, tke 
funds brought by me are barely sufficient, with the most economical ex- 
penditure, to meet the wants of the squadron. 

" ' I am, very respectfully, sir, your most obedient servant, 

" ' W. Branford Shubrick, 
" ' Commander-in-chiefs U. S. naval forces. 
" ' Lieutenant Colonel Fremont, &c., &c., &c.' 

" The plain deductions of this letter are, that Commodore Shubrick 
and General Kearney, having met lit Monterey, had consulted together, 
compared their several instructions, agreed upon their respective powers, 
and arranged the course of action they judged proper. All this appears 
in the thitd paragraph. What the course of action agreed upon was, is 
to be drawn from the fifth paragra[)h ; and the necessary inference is, 
that it had been found either not competent, or not proper, to disturb 
the existing state of affairs, before 'the pleasure of the President' 
should be further ascertained. The letter does not bear any other inter- 
pretation ; so that, whatever the tenure of my office as governor may 
have been previously, this amounts in the legal phrase, to quieting me in 



STOCKTON AMD KEARNEY. 283 

possession, by common consent, till such time as the government at 
home should direct differently or defimtively. This is the plain import 
of the letter, and if anything contrary to it was intended, I never heard 
of it, nor was anything contrary done, till more than two weeks after the 
contingency reserved (farther instructions from the government) had 
happened. That I did not misconstrue this letter, as I received it then, 
and as circumstances justified my construction of it, is rendered certain 
by the additional light which I have upon it now. This additional light 
is found in the dispatch of Commodore Shubrick to the government, of 
even date with the above letter to me. In this dispatch is the following; 

"'Sir: Since my letters of the 26tb, 2*7 th, and 28th ultimo, no impor- 
tant change, so far as I can learn, has taken place in the territory. The 
people seem to be settling down into quiet acquiescence in the change 
of government. Those best acquainted with their temper and disposition, 
do not apprehend further disturbance of the peace of the country. 

" ' General Kearney arrived here on the 8th, in the sloop-of-war 
Cyane ; and, after the adoption of such measures as we thought neces- 
sary here, / sent him to San Francisco, in the Cyane, to which place I 
should have accompanied him, but that I am looking daily for the arrival 
of Commodore Stockton from San Diego, and it is important that I 
should receive his reports before I go further. 

" ' You will have learned ere this that an unfortunate difference has 
taken place between Commodore Stockton and General Kearney, and 
between the general and Colonel Fremont, growing out of the appoint- 
ment of Colonel Fremont as civil goverrior of California by the commo- 
dore, and the refusal of the colonel to recognize the authority of the 
general. 

'"I have, as enjoined on me by my instructions, exchanged opinions 
with General Kearney, and shall continue to concert with him such mea- 
sures as may seem best for keeping quiet possession of California. 

" ' With regard to the civil government of territory, authority for the 
establishment of which is contained in your instructions to Commodore 
Sloat, of 12th July last, which I received by the Lexington, measures 
have been, in my opinion, prematurely taken by Commodore Stockton, 
and an appointment of governor made, of a gentleman who, I am led to 
believe, is not acceptable to the people of California; but as the intention 
to make the appointment was, I understand, communicated to the Presi- 
dent as early as August last, and information as to his wishes may be 
soon expected, / have determined to await such information, and confine 
aiyself for the present, to arrangements for the quiet possession of tlte 
territory, and for the blockade of the coast of Mexico.' 



28.1: LITE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

"Now, this is conclusive of Coijimodorc Shubrick's intentions and opin- 
ions, his views of his authority, and of the manner he dete'-mined to ex- 
ercise it. It is conclusive that though he was pleased to impute prccipi' 
tancy to the action of Commodore Stockton, and had been ' led to 
believe' that the appointment made by him was not of the right sort of 
a person, yet that he did not question its legality, nor the authority for 
making it. It is also conclusive that whatever doubts he had as to the 
propriety of the appointment made by Commodore Stockton, he did not 
feel authorized, even under the powers which he held, to disturb it ; or 
at least that he declined to do so. Not to disturb, was to continue ; ' to 
awaW the information from the government, concerning the appoint- 
ment, was to recognize the appointment in the meantime, and, in effect 
(if that had been necessary), to confirm it. 

"Such was the action of Commodore Shul.rick after a comparison of 
his instructions with those of General Kearney, after consultation with 
that officer ; and such was the effect of that action upon my appoint- 
ment. ' 

" I now proceed to show that, in determining on this course of action, 
Commodore Shubrick had the agreement and acquiescence of General 
Kearney. This appears in the official dispatch of the letter of 15th March, 
•which, after relating his meeting with Commodore Shubrick at Monterey, 
on the 8th of February, proceeds as follows : 

" ' On my showing to Commodore Shubrick my instriictions from the 
War Department, of June 8d and 18th. 1846,. he was at once prepared to 
pay all propter respect to them ; and being at that time the commander- 
in-chief of the naval forces on this station, he acknowledged me as the head 
and commander of the troops in California, which Commodore Stockton 
and Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont had hitherto refused. He then showed 
me the instructions to Commodore Sloat of July 12th, from the Navy De- 
partment, received by the Lexington, at Valparaiso, on the 2d December, 
and which he had brought with him from there ; and, as they contained 
directions for Commodore Sloat to take charge of the civil affairs in Cali- 
fornia, I immediately told Commodore Shubrick that I cheerfully ctcgui- 
esced, and was ready to afford him any assistance in my power. We 
agreed upon our separate duties ; and / then went to the bay of San 
Francisco, taking with me Lieutenant Halleck, of the engineers, besides 
Captain Turner and Lieutenant Warner, when was made a recounois- 
eance of the bay, with a view to the selection of sites for fortifications, 
for the protection of shipping in the harbor and the security of the land 
forces.' 

" This establishes that General Kearney acknowledged the authority of 
Commodore Shubrick over the civil affairs of the territory, and acquiesced 



1 



THE DEFENCE. 285 

in the determiHation of tha", officer not to disturb Commodore Stockton'g 
appointment until further information from, the government; and that 
the two agreed upon their separate duties in the premises. Tliis letter 
also establishes another important circumstance, viz. : the true,weight 
and value attached by General Kearney himself to his instructions. ' On. 
showing to Commodore Shubrick my instructiojis, he was at once prepared 
to pay all proper respect to them, and being at that time\ commander-in- 
chief of the naval forces, he acknowledged me as the head and com- 
mander OF the troops," &c. The latter part of the sentence rests 
entirely upon General Kearney ; the letter of Commodore Shubrick, 
containing nothing of the sort, and the phrase used in it towards General 
Kearney, viz. : ' / sent him in the Cyane,' &c., would seem to imply the 
contrary. But grant General Kearney's position, and it results that in his 
own estimation a ' proper respect ' to his instructions only required him 
to be acknowledged as ' the head and commander of the troops,^ and 
that he did not consider himself entitled under them to interfere with 
the civil affairs. General Kearney adds, after st;iting that ' he acknow- 
ledged me as the head and commander of the troops,' the words, ' which 
Commodore Stockton and Lieutenant-Coloiiel Fremont had hitherto re- 
fused.'' Now, what is the testimony to this point ? Commodcre Stock- 
ton testifies : ' After General Kearney arrived, and in my quarters and in 
presence of two of my military family, loffered to make him commander- 
in-chief over all of us. He said >to ; thaX the force loas mine.^ 

" The agreement as to their respective powers, between Commodore 
Shubrick and General Kearney, and the determination of the former, 
with the acquiescence of the latter, that the state of affairs then existing 
should await further information from home, was, no doubt, the legal and 
proper course, and had it been continued in, every thing would have pro- 
ceeded harmoniously. It was continued in, so fiir as appears, until after 
the receipt of the instructions, which they had determined to await. The 
wrong consisted in not obeying those instructions. I put out of view 
entirely, in this connection, my right to be lawfully and regularly relieved, 
and plant myself on the express letter of the instructions of the 5th Novem- 
ber. These are mandatory to the naval commanders to relinquish the con- 
trol of the civil administration, and to ' tiirn over'' the papers connected 
with it. The only way in which they could be obeyed was for that com- 
mander to inform me of the order he had received, and take from my hands 
the ofDee, and the archives connected with it, that he might, as directed, 
' relinquish' and ' turn them over' to General Kearney. For some purpose 
yet unexplained — unless its object is seen in this prosecution — they were 
not obeyed. I was kept rr. ignorance of the wishes of the government, 



280 LIFE AND 6EEVICE3 OF JOHN C. FEEMO^•T. 

and General Kearney undertook by wrongful orders to get possession from 
me of what he could only lawfully receive from Commodore Shubriclt. 

" And on this I leave the defence of this act, both where it is charged 
as mutiny, and where as an offence against discipline. 

" Sp«ci.Jication 5, under the charge of mutiny, is based on the letter 
to Mr. Willard Ilall and charged as a design to persuade him (Mr. Hall) 
to aid me in my mutiny against General Kearney. The first answer of 
Mr. Hall to the first question put to him (.31st day) entirely negatived 
that charge. On the day after Mr. Hall came into court, and desired to 
exphiin his testimony. The explanation went to show that by the expres- 
sion in the letter, ' cannot suffer myself to be interfered with by an- 
other,' that General Kearney was meant. The answer to the next questioa 
however, was, that General Kearney was not there at the time, and that 
Mr. Hall did not know where he was, and so negatived the ' explana- 
tion.' Moreover, as I was not in mutiny myself, I could not have 
been inciting others to mutiny. The letter itself is all the defence which 
I make to this specification. 

'■'^Specification 6, under the charge of mutiny, is based on the pur 
chase of an island near the mouth of the San Francisco Bay, for the 
United Rtates, taking the title to the United States, and promising th«» 
payment of $.5,000. 

" My answer appears upon the face of the papers, that it was done 
as governor, and for the benefit of the United States ; a fact which, if 
I understand the prosecution, and the decision of this court, refusing to 
receive any evidence to the point, is admitted. 

" Specification 7, under the charge of mutiny, and specification 4, 
under the charge of disobedience of orders, are for the same act or acts, 
and will be considered together. Not mustering the men of the Califor- 
nia battalion lor payment is one of the points of the charge : the evidence 
fihows that the men, without exceptioa, rcfascd to be mustered. The 
officers, whose pay would not be materiallly affected, were willing to be 
mustered. Not marching the battalion to Yerba Buena, and ordering it 
to remain at San Gabriel, and ordering Captain Owens not to deliver up 
the cannon of the battalion, are the essential points of the rest of the 
specification, with the aggravation of not obeying the orders brought by 
Captain Turner, after promising to do so, and disregarding the procla- 
matioiv of General Kearney and Commodore Shubrick. 

"The order by Captain Turner was deUvered on the 11th of March • 
on the ICth I gave my orders to Captain Owens, based upon my intended 
visit to Monterey, and on their face intended to keep the troops in acoa- 
ditioD to sustain themselves, or to repel actual invasion. 



THE DEFEXCE. 287 

" No notice of the President's instructions of the 5th of NoTcniber 
was sent to ine, nor did tlie joint proclamation, or any otlier paper tliat I 
ever saw, refer to tliem. I was then governor and coniniander-in-chiot' 
in California, and had a right to bo regularly relieved, if any instructions 
had terniiiiated my power, and no one had a right to depose me by force 
and vioUMice. 

"The statement which I shall now make, is based upon the evidence 
given by diflerent witnesses, who testified to the points I shall mention, 
of whom Major Gillespie, Colonel Russell, Lieutenant Minor, of the navy, 
Captain Cooke, Lieutenant Loker, were the principal. 

" After the capitulation of Couenga, the country immediately sub- 
sided into profound tranquillity, and security of life, person, and property, 
became as complete as in any part of the United States. Travelling or 
at home, single or in company, armed or defenceless, all were safe. 
Harmony and good will prevailed, and no trace of the suppressed insure 
rection, or of resentment for what was passed, was anywhere seen. I 
li^ed alone, after a short time, in the ancient capital of the governors 
general of Los Angeles, without guards or military protection ; the bat- 
talion having been sent off nine miles to the mission of San Gabriel. I 
lived in the midst of the people iu their ancient capital, administering the 
government, as a governor lives in the capital, of any of our States. 

" Suddenly, and in the beginning of the month of March, all this was 
changed. ' Men, armed to the teeth, were galloping about the country.' 
Groups of armed men were constantly seen, the whole population was 
iu conmiotion, and everything verged towards violence and bloodshed. 
For what cause ? The approach of the Mormons, the proclamations 
incompatible with the capitulation of Couenga, the prospect that I was 
to be deposed by violence, the anticipated non-payment of government 
liabilities, and the general insecurity which such events inspired. Such 
was the cause. I determined to go to Mouterey to lay the state of things 
before General Kearney, and gave all the orders necessary to preserve 
tranquillity while I was gone. I then made that extraordinary ride of 
which testimony has been given. General Kearney is the'only witness 
beforo" the court of what took place at Monterey. He seems to know 
but of t^ events in my interview with him : that I insulted him, and 
oiVcrod to resign my commission. It can hjirdly be supposed that I rode 
4U0 miles to Monterey, in less than four days, and back iu the same time 
for such purposes ; yet these are the only things done in that visit, as 
estAblislied by the testimony before the court. To the question, whether 
I did not mention the government liabilities, the answer was that ho did 
not recollect it, but would have refused if the application had been made. 



288 LIFE AND SEKVICE3 OF JOHN 0. FBEMONT. 

Th^t I was interrogated in presence of a witness, and admonished of the 
jmportauce of any answers, is proved by himself. It was at that time 
already resolved, as has since appeared, to arrest and try me for mutiny 
so that something of more importance to me still seemed to ho. impend, 
ing. A little time was allowed for me to consider. Xo comnmnicution 
was made to me of the instructions of November .5th. Suppusing that 
I was to be deposed by force and violence, I submitted, in order to pre- 
vent that consequence, and the injurious results to the pubhc service 
that would follow such a contest, and returned to Los Angele.^. 

" These are the meagre facts which the evidence discloses, and on 
which I rely for my defence to all the allegations of this specification. 

" But I think proper to add, that the orders embraced in the specifica- 
tion, though they were all complied with, as far as the state of the 
country would allow, were, with a single exception — that of re-mustering 
the battalion — illegal. The instructions of the 5th of November direct 
that the naval commander shall ' relinquish ' to General Kearney, or 
Colonel Mason, the control of the civil administration, and ' turn over ' 
all papers connected with it. Simple obedience to the instructions 
themselves, therefore, made their communication to me, and my conse- 
quent regular and lawful relief from the governorship, necessary, and all 
orders of General Kearney, or any other person, inconsistent with that, 
were unlawful, while the one concerning the archives were contrary to 
the express letter of the instructions. 

" Specification 8, under the charge of mutiny, and 5, under that of 
disobedience of orders, are based on the same act, and receive the same 
answer with the last mentioned specification. 

" Specification 9, of mutiny, is based upon the act of ordering the col- 
lector at San Pedro, on the 21st of March, to receive government paper 
in discharge of public dues, &c. ; and the answer to it is, that the order, 
in writing, of that day was to cover a verbal order previously given, the 
officer wishing the written order for his justification ; that neither Com- 
modore Shubrick nor any other person gave me any notice of the Presi- 
dent's instructions of November 5, 18-i6, and that I had not then, nor 
until a week afterwards at Monterey, yielded to what I believed to be a 
design to depose me, by force and violence, from the governoKhip of 
California. 

" Specification 10, of the charge of mutiny, and G, of disobedience of 
orders, all refer to acts done when I was governor and commander-in- 
chief in California, and are in alleged violation of the order of January 
16, 1847. I refer to my previous answers to show that I was governor 
at that time, and to show the nullity and inapplicability of the orders of 
January 16, 18-47. 



THE DEFENCE. 289 

" Specification 11, of mutiny, and 7, of disobedience of orders, are 
based on the same act : that of not obeying the order to repair to Mon- 
terey, given to me on the 2Gth and 2Sth days of March. This failure to 
obey that order is sufficiently accounted for in the testimony, which 
shows the danger of travelling at that time ; and there was nothing on 
its face, or in the testimony in relation to it, which showed it to be 
urgent, or that the public service required risks of person or life in 
attempting to comply with it. The words, ' I desire to see you in this 
place,' &c., &c., as used in the order, seems not to come within the 
meaning of an order to be obeyed at all hazards ; and the first clause of 
the order, written on the 28th day of March, directing me to consider all 
instructions coming from him (Colonel Mason) as if they had come from 
General Kearney himself, seemed to encourage the same idea of the want 
of urgency in the desire to see me at Monterey. 
" The following is the clause of that order : 

" ' Head-quarters, 10th Military Dkpartment, 1 
" ' MosTEREY, California, March 28, 1847. ) 

" ' Sir : This will be handed to you by Colonel Mason, 1st dragoons, 
who goes to the southern district, clothed by me with full authority to 
give such orders and instructions upon all matters, both civil and 
military, in that section of country, as he may deem proper and neces- 
sary. Any instructions he may give to you will be considered as coming 
from myself.' 

" The execution of his own order, and of consequent additional orders 
given to me by Colonel Mason, occupied so nmch time that it became 
impossible to reach Monterey within the period fixed by him, and 
delayed my departure until it was further interfered with by the condition 
of the country. 

" As a further answer to all the orders given to me on and after the 
1st of March, 1847, I am advised by counsel to say that they are in 
violation of the orders of General Scott, of November 3d, 1846, to Gen. 
Kearney, viz. : 

" ' It is known that Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont, of the United States 
rifle regiment, was, in July last, with a party of men, in the service of 
the United States topographical engineers, in the neighborhood of San 
Francisco, or Monterey bay, engaged in joint operations against Mexico 
with the United States squadron on that coast. Should you find him 
there, it is desired that you do not detain him against his wishes a moment 
longer thar the necessities of the service may require.' 

13 



290 LIFE AI^'D SERVICES OF JOHN G. FKKMONT. 

" This order was carried out by Colonel Mason, and came to the hands 
of General Kearney before any orders issued by him with respect io me 
on the 1st March, on which day he addressed an official letter to me, 
reciting that he had tlie directions of the geueral-in-ciiief not to detaia 
me against my wislies a moment longer than the necessities of the 
service reejuired, and leaving me at ' liberty ' to leave the country, after 
I had complied with the instructions in the letter and with the orders 
referred to. I rely upon the concluding paragraph of this official letter 
to prove that General Kearney, at that time, could not have considered 
criminal, and worthy of the prosecution now carried on, any act of mine 
previous to the writing of that letter. 

" The following is the letter : 

" ' HbAD-QUARTERS, 10th MlLrXAST PBTARTHtBHT, ) 

" ' MoNTEKEY, U. C. Jlarcfi ^, loaT. J 

" ' Sir : By department orders, No. 2, of this date, which will be 
handed to you by Captain Turner, 1st dragoons, A. A. A. G., for my 
command, you will see that certain duties are there required of you as 
commander of the battaUon of California volunteers. 

" ' In addition to the duties above referred to, I have now to direct 
th?.t you will bring with you, and with as little delay as possible, all the 
archives and public documents, and papers, which may be subject to 
your control, and which appertain to the government of California, that 
I may receive them from your hands at this place, the capital of the ter- 
ritory. I have directions from the general-in-chief not to detain you in 
this country against your wishes a moment longer than the necessities of 
the service may require, and you will be at liberty to leave here after 
you have complied with these instructions, and those in the " orders " 
referred to. 

" ' Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" ' S. W. Kearney 
" ' Brigadier General and Governor of California. 

" ' To Lieut. Col. J. C. Fremont, 

" ' Regiment of Mounted Riflemen, com- 
manding Battalion of California 
Vols., Ciudad de los Angeles.'' 

"Having now answered all the specifications under the charges of 
mutiny and disobedience of orders, I have to say that five of the same 
acts on which these specifications are founded, «,re also laid under th» 



i 



THE DEFENCaS. 291 

charge of conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline. I am ad- 
vised by counsel that offences enumerated in the rules and articles of 
war cannot be prosecuted among the non-enumerated offences of the 
99th article of war (Hough, page 630), but I take no exception to any 
iHegality or any irregularity, if such there be in the charges, and make 
the same answers to these five specifications, under the charge under 
which they are last found, as was made under the two preceding 
charges. 

" I have deemed it my duty to reply to each specification, because i^ 
is the duty of the court to find upon each, and because it is right-to show 
my conduct consistent and proper with all points. I obeyed orders, 
after the 1st of March, to avoid bloodshed and violence. Not relieved, 
as governor, and deeming them illegal, I obeyed. Now, being put upon 
my trial, according to law, I claim the benefit of law, and to be consider- 
ed governor until I was relieved. In themselves, most of the specifica- 
tions, after the first leading ones, are cither cumulative or insignificant in 
the presence of the grave ones which precede them, and which would 
hardly, of themselves, have been considered worthy of such a prosecu- 
tion, and while replying separately to each of these minor and cumula- 
tive accusations, I refer to the main leading argument at the opening of 
the charges of mutiny, in usurping the office of governor, and disobe- 
dience to the order of January 16, 1847, as presenting the general and 
sustained defence which the gravity of the charges required. 

" I now come to a different part of my defence — but of which I fairly 
gave notice to the court, and through it to the prosecution, at an early 
■stage of this trial — that of impeaching the motives and the credit of the 
prosecuting witness. To do this is both legal and fair, where there is 
just ground for it ; and that is abundantly the case in this instance. A 
prosecutor should have none but public motives ; his testimony should 
ue scrupulously fair towards the accused. If he contradicts other wit- 
nesses, which General Kearney has so much done, it becomes necessary 
to weigh their respective credit ; and in d(5ing this I have a right, and 
moreover, it is my duty to myself and to others, to produce instances of 
erroneous testimony he may have exhibited, either from defect of 
imniory, or from evil intent ; and for that purpose to contrast his own 
U'stiniony with itself where it varies, or with that of other witnesses 
whore thry contradict him. To this part of my defence I now proceed, 
and -speak first of the acts which go to the motives of the prosecutor : 

" 1. Giving me no notice of his intended arrest. He admits that thia 
arrest was resolved upon in January, 1847, and that I had no notice of it 
until I was actxially arrested on the frontiers in the latter part of August 



292 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

following. Others were informed of it, but not myself, the one above 
all others the most interested to know. I was brought across the conti- 
nent in a state of virtual imprisonment, to be tried for a multitude of 
offences, charged to have been committed on the shores of the Pacific, 
without the warning which would enable me to bring evicknce to meet 
a single charge ; while my accuser and general, brought with him all that 
he deemed necessary either of written evidence, or of witnesses to insure 
my conviction. It is impossible, in my opinion, to reconcile this con- 
duct with any fair and honorable motive. It laid me under the necessity 
of choosing between a trial, brought on by surprise, and almost without 
the means of defence, or of suffering ruinous charges, enforced by news- 
paper publications, to hang over my head. TJie latter, according to 
Major Cooke's testimony, seems to have been General Kearney's calcula- 
tion ; and as I deemed the effect of such impending charges and pub- 
lications would be worse than any conviction, I was forced into a trial, 
unprepared for it, J;o take the chance of any testimony that might be 
found. 

" 2. Denying me the privilege of going to Mexico to join my regiment 
when I had made preparation of sixty men and a hundred and twenty 
horses to do so, and had not the least doubt of reaching General Taylor's 
camp, and thence going to the regiment, expected (according to infor- 
mation received from Washington), to be on the road from Vera Cruz to 
Mexico. I expected to reach it in July, which would have been in time 
for the great operations impending, and since so gradually executed. 
The refusal to let me go did me many injuries which a soldier can feel ; 
and, besides, left me involved in debts for my preparations, and was 
further, in violation of General Scott's directions, not to detain me in the 
country, against my wishes, a moment longer than the necessities of the 
service required ; and, also, in violation of his own official letter to me 
of March 1, 1847, leaving me at liberty to quit the country when I 
pleased, after complying with a few small orders, not amounting to " ne- 
cessities " of the service, but which were complied with. 

" 3. Taking away from me the command of my topographical party , 
taking away the scientific instruments which I had so long used ; leaving 
behind my geological and botanical specimens of near two years' collec- 
tion ; leaving behind the artist of the expedition (Mr. Kern), with his 
slvetches and drawings ; leaving behind my assistant (Mr. King), he and 
Mr. Kern both standing in a relation to be material witnesses to me in 
any inquiry into my conduct ; denying me the privilege of returning to 
the United States by any new route, which would enable me to correct 
previous explorations, or add to geographical and scientific knowledge ; 



THE DEFENCE. 293 

making me follow on his trail in the rear of his Mormon escort. All this 
after he haxl, in conformity to General Scott's instructions, previously 
left me at ' liberty ' to quit California when I pleased, after executing 
the few small orders above referred to. 

" 4. Interfering with Commodore Biddle to detain Major Gillespie in 
California, an officer known to have been intimately associated with mo 
in California, and who, arriving a fortnight after this trial had com- 
menced, has shown himself to be a material witness for me. The fact 
of interference is admitted ; the circumstances attending it are most 
suspicious; the reasons given for it most inadequate, and, besides, contra- 
dicted by the fact that Major Gillespie was soon after allowed " to go 
about the country,^ and did not do the mischief which had been appre- 
hended from his being at large. The detention of Major Gillespie was 
the detention of Commodore Stockton and his party ; so that this 
interference delayed the arrival not only of Major Gillespie, but of 
Commodore Stockton, Captain Ilensley, and other material witnesses 
who c-ame with him. 

" 5. Not communicating to me his knowledge of the instructions of 
the 6th of November and 12th of July, 1846, when a knowledge of 
those instructions was so necessary for the safe guidance of my conduct. 
The excuse, in relation to that of the 5th of November, that he was not 
in the habit of communicating instructions to juniors, is invalidated 
by the fact of the previous communication of those of June, 1846, when 
I was equally junior militarily, and before I had become governor and 
commander-in-chief. 

" 6. Making injurious representations to the War Department against 
me and against the battalion under my command, without giving 
me any knowledge of such representations, and which I have only 
found out in the progress of this trial, in searching for testimony in 
the department. 

" 7. My reception at Monterey on March 26th, for the nature of which 
I noiu refer entirely to General Kearney's testimony. I made a most 
.extraordinary ride to give information to prevent an insurrection. I 
asked an interview on business, and had it granted, and found Colonel 
Mason with him. The only thing, it would seem, that I came for in that 
interview, was to insult General Kearney and to offer my resignation ; and 
he does not even know what I went for. Certainly the public service, to 
gay nothing of myself as an officer, required a different kind of recep- 
tion from the one I received. 

" 8. The order given to Colonel Mason on the 28tli of March (after 
what had happened in his presence on the 26th\ to .proceed to Los 



294 LITE AND 8KKVIC1KS OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

Angclea, where I was, with the power and authority over me, of which 
I was officially advised by letter of that date. I now only mention 
the order, in connection with my reception at Monterey, as repre" 
Bentcd by General Kearney, and add nothing to it. I do not go beyond 
the evidence. 

"9. The fact of not relieving me in some legal form from the duties of 
governor of California, after the President's instructions of the 5th of 
Novemljer arrived, and concealing from me all Icnowledge of those 
instructions, while putting the interrogatories, the- answers to which he 
has sworn he warned me might be of so much importance. 

" 10. The march of the Mormons upon Los Angeles, when I was 
expected to be there, and would have been, except for the urgent business 
which carried me to Monterey — the '■crushing'' that might have taken 
place, if a ' revolt ' of the people had not been apprehended — and 
all the circumstances of that movement I leave where the evidence 
placed it. 

" 11. The conduct of Colonel Mason to me at Los Angeles (so far as 
the evidence discloses it), is by me referred to the luU authority over me 
with which he was clothed by General Kearney, and of which I was noti- 
fied in this clause of General Kearney's official letter to me; 

"'Sir: This will be handed to you by Colonel Mason, 1st dragoons, 
who goes to the southern district, clothed by me with full authority to 
give such orders and instructions in that section of the country as he 
may deem proper and necessary. Any instructions he may give to yon 
will be considered as coming from myself.' 

" 12. The exhibition of myself and the citizens of my topographical 
party at Monterey, on the 30th May — the circumstances of the march 
from that place to Fort Leavenworth, and the manner of the arrest there 
— I leave in like manner where the evidence placed it; giving it as my 
opinion, in the twelve instances enumerated, besides in many others to 
be seen in the testimony, that no presumption of acting from a sense of 
public duty can outweigh the facts and appearances to the contrary, and 
that all these twelve instances, and others to be seen in the testi- 
mony, go to impeach his motives in this prosecution. 

*' I now proceed to the last point of my defence — the impeachment 
of the credit of General Kearney as a witness before this court. The 
law gives me the right to do so. Morality condemns the exercise of that 
right, unless sternly justified by credible evidence. I feel so justified. 



THE DEFENCE. 295 

I also feel that this case, above all others, admits of the exercise of all 
the rights against this witness which the law and the evidence allow to 
the accused. 

" It is a case in which the witness comprises, in his own person, the 
character of accuser, prosecutor, leading witness, commanding general, 
arresting officer — and bringing me, by virtue of his superior rank, 
three thousand miles across the continent, to be tried, without warning, 
upon unknown charges, or to be ruined by infamous accusations hanging 
over me and urged in the newspapers. This is the case, and I claim in 
it the right of impeaching the credit of the witness, both upon his own 
swearing and that of others. 

■' Referring then to the points on which the credit of the witness is 
already impeached in other parts of the defence, I will first call atten- 
tion, under this head, to what relates to the expedition of December and 
January, 1846 and 1847, from San Diego to Los Angeles, and especially 
with reference to the testimony concerning the command of the troops 
in that expedition. This is a matter on which General Kearney lays great 
stress throughout, bottoming, at one time, his claim to chief authority 
in the province, mainly on the results of that expedition, and his alleged 
command of it. I shall, consequently, examine and test what he says in 
relation to it, with some minuteness. 

" And first as to the point, at whose instance was the expedition raised 
and marched ? There is a great discrepancy here. In General Kearney's 
letter of 17th January, to the department he says : 

*' ' I have to state that the march of the troops from San Diego to this 
place was rehictantly- consented to by. Commodore Stockton, on my urgent 
advice that he should not leave Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont unsupported 
to fight a battle on which the fate of California might, for a long time, 
depend ; the correspondence to prove which is now with my papers at San 
Diego,'' kc, &c. 

" In his cross-examination, on the fourth day of the trial, he says : 

" ' In the latter end of December, an expedition was organized at San 
Diego to march to Los Angeles to assist Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont ; 
and it was organized in consequence, as I believe, of this paper, which is a 
copy of a letter from me to Commodore Stockton,^ (referring to his letter 
of December 22, hereafter c^uoted.) 

" Let us contrast this first positive assertion, and second more reserved 
declaration of belief, with facts, with other testimony, and finally with 
the ' proof which General Kearney tenders. 

" Commodore Stockton testifies : 



296 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C, FREMONT. 

'"After General Kearney arrived (on the 12th December), and in my 
quarters, and in presence of two of my military family, I offered to make 
him commander-in-cliief over all of us, and I otfcrcd to go as his aid-de- 
camp, lie said no ; that the force was mine ; and he would (jo as my 
aid-de-camp, or accompany me. ' ' 

"Now, '<o (70' where ? to '■accompany where? 

" This, if not sufficiently explicit, is made entirely so by the certificate 
of Messrs. Spieden and Moscley, of the navy, offered by Commodore 
Stockton, in corroboration, under the sanction of his oath, and, of course, 
forming a proper interpretation of his words. This certificate is as fol- 
lows : 

" ' We, the undersigned, were present at a conversation held between 
Commodore Stockton and General Kearney, at San Diego, shortly after 
the arrival of the general, in which conversation the commodore offered 
to give to General Kearney the ' command-in-chief ' of the forces he wax 
preparing to inarch with to the Ciudad de los Angeles, and to act as his 
aid-de-camp. This offer the general declined, but said he would be most 
happy to go with the commodore as his aid-de-camp, and assist him with 
his head and hand. 

" ' William Spieden, U. S. N. 
" ' Samuel Moseley, U. S. iV". 

" 'San Diego, February 5, 1847.' 

"Again Commodore Stockton testifies that, at a subsequent interview, 
a few days afterwards he made to General Kearney ' the same offer, in 
pretty much the same language, and received pretty much the same 
answer.' 

" It is certain, then, that General Kearney's letter of the 22d Decem- 
ber was not the inducing cause of the expedition, as ' believed,' in Gene- 
ral Kearney's testimony, and that ' the march of the troops ' was not a 
matter that Commodore Stockton 'reluctantly assented to,' as asserted in 
General Kearney's official letter ; and it is also certain that General 
Kearney could not have supposed either to be the case, for he had been 
informed ten days before of the design to send the expedition ; that it 
was ' preparing to march ;' and he had been twice offered, and had 
twice declined the command of it. 

"Commodore Stockton further testifies : 

" I now set to work to make tlie best preparations I could to commence 
our march for the Ciudad de los Angeles. During this time an expedi- 
tion that had been sent to the south for horses returned, *and brought 



THE DEFENCE. 297 

with it a number of liorses and cattle. Captain Turner was allowed to 
take his pick of the horses for the dragoons. After he had done so he 
wrote to me this note : 

• " 'San Diego, December 23, 1846. 
" ' Commodore : In compliance with your verbal instruction to examine 
and report upon the condition of the public horses turned over to me for 
the use of C Company, 1st dragoons, I have the honor to state that, in 
my opinion, not one of the horses referred to is fit for dragoon service, 
being too poor and weak for any such purpose ; also, that the company 
of dragoons, under my command, can do much better service on foot 
than if mounted on those horses. 

" ' I am, sir, with high respect, your obedient servant, 

" ' H. S. Turner, 
" ' Capfaiti 1st Dragoons commanding company C. 
" ' Commodore R. F. Stockton, 

" ' United States Navy, Com7nanding, &c. <lcc.'' 

" The exact day of the return of this expedition for horses and cattle 
does not appear. But, as there had been time for Captain Turner to be 
allowed to ' take his pick ' from the horses, examine them, and make a 
report upon them by the 23d of December, it is nearly certain that it 
must have returned by the 22d ; and hence it would seem that General 
Kearney's letter, sent to Commodore Stockton in the night of the last 
mentioned day, in which he ' recommends ' the expedition, and in which 
he claims the whole merit of the march, and to have induced Commo- 
dore Stockton reluctantly to consent to it, was not written till he had not 
only been repeatedly informed that the expedition was in preparation, and 
he had been twice offered the command of it, but not till the horses and 
cattle for its use had actually arrived, and probably a part of them turned 
over to his own company of dragoons. This, indeed, is rendered nearly 
certain by the fact that the preparations for the expedition were so far 
advanced that Commodore Stockton's general orders for the march were 
issued on the day next following General Kearney's letter, which he pre- 
tends, under oath to have been the inducing cause of the expedition. 

"But General Kearney is entitled to the benefit of the '■proof which 
he vouches to the department in this passage of his letter : 

" ' I have to state that the march of the troops from San Diego to this 
place was reluctantly consented to by Commodore Stockton, on my 
urgent advice that he should not leave Colonel Fremont unsupported 



298 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FRETMONT. 

to fight a battle on which the fate of Cahfornia might for a long time 
depend ; the correspondence to prove which is now with my papers at San 
Diego, and a copy of which will be furnished to you on my return to 
that place.' 

" This 'correspondence,' as he certifies it on the 12th day of the trial, 
consists of three letters and Commodore Stockton's general orders for 
the march. I will set out all of them : 

" ' Sas Dikgo, December 22, 1846. 
" ' Dear Commodore : If you can take from here a sufficient force to 
oppose the Californians, now supposed to be near Pueblo, and waiting 
for the approach of Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont, I advise that you 
do so, and that you march with that force as early as possible in the 
direction of the Pueblo, by which you will either be able to form a 
junction with Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont, or make a diversion very 
much in his favor. 

" 'I do not think that Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont should be left unsup- 
ported to fight a battle upon which the fate of California may, for a long 
time, depend, if there arc troops here to act in concert with him. Your 
force, as it advances, might surprise the enemy at the St. Louis Mission, 
and make prisoners of them. 

" ' I shall be happy, in such an expedition, to accompany you, and 
to give you any aid, either of head or hand, of which I may be capa- 
ble. 

" ' Tours truly, 

" ' S. "W. Kearney, 

" ' Brigadier General. 
" *To Commodore Stockton, • 

" ' Commajiding United States Forces, San Diego.'' 

" ' Headquarters, San Diego, December 28, 1846. 

" ' Dear General : Your note of yesterday was handed to me last night 
by Captain Turner, of the dragoons. 

" 'In reply to that noto^permit me to refer you to the conversation held 
with you yesterday morning at your quarters. I stated to you distinctly 
that I intended to march upon St. Louis Key as soon as possible, with a 
part of the force under my command, and that I was very desirous to 
march on to the Pueblo to co-operate with Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont ; 
but my movements after, to St. Louis Rey, would depend entirely upon 
the information that I might receive as to the movements of Colonel 



THE IlEFENCE. 299 

Fremont and the enemy. It might be necessary for me to stop the pass 
of San Felipe, or march back to San Diego. 

• " * Now, my dear general, if the object of your note is to advise me to 
do anything which would enable a large force of the enemy to get into 
my rear and cut oft' my communication with San Diego, and hazard the 
safety of the garrison and the ships in the harbor, you will excuse me for 
saying I cannot follow any such advice. 

" ' My PURPOSE still is to march for St. Louis Rey as soon as I can get 
the DRAGOONS a7id riflemen mounted, which I hope to do in two days. 

" ' Faithfully, your obedient servant, 

" ' R. F. Stockton, 

*' ' Comma7ider-in-chief and governor 

of the territory of California. 
*'* Ta Brigadier General S. W. Kearney, 

" ' United States Army,'' 

" ' San Dibgo, December 23, 1846. 
" Dear Commodore : I have received yours of this date, repeating, as 
you say, what you stated to me yesterday ; and in reply I have only to 
remark that, if I had so understood you, I certainly would not have writ- 
ten my letter to you of last evening. 

" ' You certainly could not for a moment suppose that I would advise or 
suggest to you any movement which might endanger the safety of the 
garrison and the ships in the harbor. 

" ' My letter of yesterday's date stated that ' if you can take from 
here,' &c., of which you were the judge, and of which I knew 
nothing. " ' Truly yours, 

" ' S. W. Kearney, 

" ' Brigadier General. 
" ' Commodore R. F. Stockton, 

" ' Commanding U, 8. Navy, (kc, San DiegoJ' 

" ' General Orders : 

" ' The forces composed of Captain Tilghman's company of artillery, a 
detachment of the 1st regiment of dragoons, companies A and B of the 
CaUfornia battalion of mounted riflemen, and a detachment of sailors and 
marines, from the frigates Congress and Savannah and the ship Ports- 
mouth, will take up the line of march for the Ciudad de los Angeles on . 
Monday morning, the 28th instant, at 10 o'clock, A. M. 

" ' By order of the commander-in-chief. 

' " J. ZlELAN, 

" ' Brevet Captain and Adjutant 
'■<■ <■ Sam Dnioo, December 28, 1&46.* 



300 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

" The character of this correspondence entirely destroys General 
Kearney's asseverations ; V^oth the one in his report that Commodore 
Stockton ' reluctantly consented' to the march of the troops, and the one 
before the court that he ' believed ' that the expedition was organized in 
consequence of his letter of advice. 

"Commodore Stockton's letter is explicit both of his present and pre- 
vious ' intention,'' ' desire,^ and ''purpose,'' to march '■as soon as possible ;' 
while the reference to the dragoons, which were General Kearney's espe- 
cial corps, shows that the subject of the expedition must have been pre- 
viously entertained between the two correspondents. Allow General Kear- 
ney, however, the benefit of any misunderstanding, touching Commodore 
Stockton's disposition and intentions, that he may have been under 
when he wrote his letter, the commodore's reply corrects all such mis- 
takes, and leaves General Kearney's subsequent assertions on this head 
direct contradictions of the declarations of Commodore Stockton. 

" The next question in connection with this expedition is who was its 
commander / General Kearney says he was ; Commodore Stockton, sus- 
tained by the testimony of many others says he was. As it could not 
have had two commanders, at the same time, I will compare the testimony. 
General Kearney's claim first comes to attention in a le*-ter to the depart 
ment of which the following is the first paragraph : 



" ' Headquarters, Army of the West, / 

" ' ClCDAD DE LOS ANGELES, Jail. 12, 1847. ) 

" ' Sir : I have the honor to report that, at the request of Commodore 
R. F. Stockton, United States navy (who in September last assumed the 
title of governor of CaUfornia), I consented to take command of an expe- 
dition to this place (the capital of the country), and that on the 29th 
December, / left San Diego with about 500 men, consisting of 60 dis- 
mounted dragoons, under Captain Turner, 50 CaUfornia volunteers, and 
the remainder of marines and sailors, with a battery of artillery ; Lieu- 
tenant Emory (topographical engineer) acting as assistant adjutant 
general. Commodore Stockton accompanied us.'' 

" Here the claim to have been the commander is plain, unequivocal, 
and unconditional. In his letter to me, however, of same date (Jan\iary 
12th), he expresses it perhaps even more strongly ; since Commodore 
Stockton is not mentioned at all, and the pronoun 'I' and 'me ' exclude 
the idea of any participant in the ' possession ' or command : 



THE DEFENCK. 301 

" ' PUEBLA DB LOS ANOELES, I 

'■'■'January 12, 184T— jTKearfay, 6 p. M. j 
"'Dear Fremont: lam here in posscssioti of this place, with sailors 
and marines. We met and defeated the whole force of the Californians 
the 8th and 9th. They have not now to exceed 300 men concen- 
trated. Avoid charging them, and come to me at this place. 

" ' Acknowledge the hour of receipt of this, and when I may expect 
you. Regards to Russell. 

" ' Yours, 

'"S. W. Kearney 

^'■'■Brigadier General. 
" ' Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont.' 

"At the next step. General Kearney slightly varies his claim, and 
admits some qualification to the completeness of his command. This is 
on his cross-examination. (Fourth day of the trial.) 

" 'In the latter end of December, an expedition was organized at San 
Dieg5 to march to Los Angeles, to assist Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont, 
and it was organized in consequence, as I believe, of this paper, which is 
a copy of a letter from me to Commodore Stockton of (December 22). 
Commodore Stockton, at that time, was acting as governor of California, 
so styling himself. * * * * He determined on the expedition, and on 
the morning of the 29th December the troops were paraded at San Diego 
for the march. The troops consisted of about five hundred sailors and 
marines, about sixty dragoons, and about forty or fifty volunteers. 
While they were on parade. Commodore Stockton called several officers 
together ; Captain Turner, of the dragoons, and Lieutenant Minor, of 
the navy, I know were there, and several others. He then remarked to 
them to the following purport ; ' Gentlemen, General Kearney has kindly 
consented to take the command of the troops on the expedition ; yom 
will, therefore, look upon him as your commander. / shall go along «t 
Governor and commander-in-chief in CA.i.ivoRTiii..'' 'We marched toward 
Los Angeles,' &c. * * * * ' The troops, under my command, 
marched into Los Angeles on the 10th of January,' &c. 

" At the next stage, in reply to a question of the judge advocate, he 
returns to the positive and unconditional assertion of command : 

" By the act of Commodore Stockton, who styled himself governor of 
California, the sailors and marines were placed under my command, on 
the 29th December, 1846, for the march to Los Angeles. I commanded 



302 LIFE AND SERVICES OE JOHN C. FREMONT. 

THEM ON TUE KXPEDTTioN ; Oomiiiodore Stockton accompanied us. I 
exercised no command whatever over Commodore Stockton, nor did he 
exert any whatever over me.' 

'•Afterward (fourteenth day) under examination by the court, and 
•vrhen information had been received here of the arrival of Commodore 
Stocl<*on in the country, the witness greatly modified his position on this 
point, and admits several acts of authority done on the march by Com- 
modore Stockton, and that he 'felt it his duty' to ' consult the wishes of 
the commodore.' 

" ' I found Commodore Stockton, on my arrival at San Diego, on the 
1 2th December, 1846, in command of the Pacific squadron, having seve- 
ral ships, either two or three, in the harbor at that place.* Most of his 
saiiors were on shore. He had assumed the title of Governor of Califor- 
nia in the month of August previous. All at San Diego addressed him as 
' governor.^ I did the same. 

" ' After be had determined on the march from San Diego to Los An- 
geles, the troops being paraded for it on the 29th December, he, in the 
presence of several officers, among whom was myself. Captain Turner, 
of the dragoons, and Lieutenant Minor, of the navy, and others, whose 
names I do not recollect, remarked to them : ' Gentlemen, General 
Kearney has kindly consented to take command of the troops in this ex- 
pedition ; you will therefore consider him as your commander. I will go 
along as Governor and commander-in-chief in California.' Under Com- 
tnodore Stockton'' s directions every arrangement for the expedition was 
made. I had nothing whatever to do with it. We marched from San 
Diego to Los Angeles. Whilst on the march, a few days before reaching 
Los Angeles, a commission of two citizens, as I believe, on behalf of 
Governor Flores, came to Commodore Stockton with a communication to 
him as governor, or commander-in-chief in California. Commodore Stock- 
ton replied to that conimitnieation without considting me. On the march 
I at no time considered Commodore Stockton under my direction ; nor 
did I at any time consider myself under his. His assimilated rank to 
officers of the army at that time was, and now is, and will for upwards 
of a year remain, that of a colonel. 

" ' Although I did not consider myself at any time or tender any cir- 
cu7nstances, as under the orden of Commodore Stockton, yet, as so large 
a portion of my command was of sailors and marines, I felt it my duty 
on all important subjects to consult his wishes, and, as far as I consist' 
e'ntly cotild do so, to comply with them.'' 

" But it was not till the fifty-first day of this trial, when he had had the 



THE DEFENCE. 303 

benefit of several weeks' reflection, added to information of the charac- 
ter of the testimony delivered by Commodore Stockton and others, and 
when he came into court fortified with his own questions, drawn up by 
himself to square with pre-arranged answers, that he could be brought 
to the point of admitting that, during the march, the commodore exer- 
cised the prerogative of sending him what he calls ' messages,' but the 
commodore calls ' orders ' and had directed many movements of the ex- 
pedition. Bat even this day's admissions are so reluctant, and with so 
many reservations, that for the plain facts other testimony must neces- 
sarily be brought in. 

" General Kearney recites twice, and with much particularity, in his 
testimony to this point, his version of what Commodore Stockton 
said to the troops before marching from San DiegO on the subject of com- 
mand ; laboring by an ingenious turn of the last clause, to draw a dis-. 
tinction between the commander-in-chief in the territory, and the com- 
mander-in-chief of the troops. This is his precise version of Governor 
Stockton's remarks : ' Gentlemen, General Kearney has kindly consented 
to take command of the troops in this expedition ; you will therefore 
look upon him as your commander. / shall go along as Governor ana 
commander-in-chief in California. 

" This fine-spun distinction seems, in fact, the corner stone of General 
Kearney's claim to have been the commander of the expedition, for while 
he constantly persists in that pretension, he as constantly admits that 
Commodore Stockton was the Governor and commander in the ter- 
ritory. 

" I do not refer to this because I attach any value to the point in itself. 
For any argument that I desire, the version given by General Kearney 
would answer as well as any other ; for if Commodore Stockton was gov- 
ornor and commander-in-chief of California, his authority was sufficient 
for my case, since Los Angeles, where I believe the charges are all laid, 
is certainly within that province. But the distinction drawn in the 
version given by the witness was considered important by him, and that 
version is contradicted ; and this is the point of view in which I present 
it. It is contradicted by Commodore Stockton, Ijeutenant Gray, Lieu- 
tenant Minor, and the certificate of Lieutenant Rowan, all whose concur- 
rent testimony affirms that Commodore Stockton's reservation of autlio- 
rity related to the commander-in-chief of the expedition, without the 
words of qualification to which General Kearney testifies ; and it is worthy 
of note that, though a witness of the prosecution, Captain Turner was 
present at the address, the prosecution have not thought proper to bring 
him to sustain General Kearney thus contradicted. 



304 LIFE *AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

" A few detached passages from the testimony will show how mate- 
rially General Kearney is contradicted, in other respects, upon this point 
of the command : 

" General Kearney : ' By the act of Commodore Stockton, the sailors 
and marines were placed under my command. I commanded them on the 
expedition.' 

" Cmnmoiorc Stockton : ' During which march I performed all the 
duties which I supposed devolved on the commander-in-chief.'' 

" General Kearney : ' I exercised no command whatever over Com" 
modore Stockton, nor did he exert any whatever over me.' 

" Commodore Stockton : ' I was in the habit of sending ray aid-de-camp 
to General Kearney to inform him what time / wished to move in the 
morning ; and I always decided on the route we should take, and when 
and where we should encamp} 

" General Kearney : ' The troops under my command marched into Los 
Angeles, on the 10th of January.' 

" Commodore Stockton : ' And when we marched into the city, / led 
the way, at the head of the advaiiced guard.'' 

" General Kearney: 'On the march, I at no time considered Commo- 
dore Stockton under my direction, nor did /, at any time, consider my- 
self under /tis.' 

" Commodore Stockton: 'I observed the guns being unlimbered; I was 
told it was done by order of General Kearney to return the fire of the 
enemy ; / ordered the guns limbered up, and the forces to cross the river 
before a shot was fired.' ' I observed that the men of the right flank had 
been formed into a square, a7id General Kearney at their head. I sent 
my aid-de-camp, Mr. Gray, to General Kearney with instructions to move 
that square, and two pieces of artillery, immediately up the hill.' 

" General Kearney : ' During our march, many messages were brought 
to me from Commodore Stockton ; those messages I looked upon as sug- 
gestio7is and expressions of his toisMa. I have, since then, learned that 
he considered them in the light of orders.' 

" Commodore Stockton : ' I sent for Captain Emory ; I asked him by 
whose order the camp was making below the hill. He said, by General 
Kearjiey's order. I told him to go to General Kearney, and tell him that 
it was my order that the camp should be immediately moved to the top 
of the hill.' ' I sent my aid-de-camp, Mr. Gray, to General Kearney, 
with instructions to move,' &c. ' The witness (Commodore Stockton), 
in enumerating sorne of the orders given and some of the details, executed 
by himself, meant merely to cite instances in which General Kearney re- 



TIIK DEFENCE. 305 

cognized and acTcnoidedged his (the witness's) command-in-chief on the 
field of battle, as well as in the march.^ 

'■^ General Kearney : 'During our march, his (Commodore Stockton's) 
authority and command, ihomih it did not extend over me, or over the 
troops which he had himself givin me, extended far beyond,' &c. 

" Commodore Stockton : ' Commodore R. F. Stoclcton begs leave to 
add, &c., that he wishes to be understood as meaning distinctly to con- 
vey the idea that General Kearney was fully invested with the command 
of the troops in the battles of the 8th and 9th of January, subject to the 
orders of him, the witness, as coMMANDER-iN-cniEF. Most and nearly all 
the execution of details was confided to General Kearney as second in 
command.' ' He could not attempt to enumerate and specify the many 
and important acts of General Kearney as second in command.'' ' When 
the troops arrived at San Bernardo, I made my head-quarters a mile, or 
two miles, in advance of the camp ; and / sent to General Kearney to 
send me the marines and a piece of artillery, which was immediately done.'' 
' / ORDERED the troops all to lie down,'' &c. ' After having directed the 
troops to be formed, &c., / took the marine guard and two pieces of ar- 
tillery,^ &c. ' On my return, I gave orders where the different officers 
and troops were to be quartered, and ordered the same fag, ^ &c. 

" General Kearney : ' I exercised no command whatever over Commo- 
dore Stockton, nor did he exert any whatever over me!' 

" Lieiitenant Gray : ' Question. Did you bear an order from Com- 
modore Stockton on the 8th of January, in the field, to General Kearney ? 
— if so, state the order and all the circumstances. 

" ' Answer. I did bear an order from Commodore Stockton to Gen- 
eral Kearney on the 8th of January, on the field of battle. The enemy 
had been observed to withdraw his guns from the height. The Commo- 
dore directed me to go to General Kearney, and say to him, to send a 
square and a field-piece immediately up on the height, to prevent the 
enemy's returning with their guns. I went and gave him the order, and 
on my return to Commodore Stockton, observed the division, or square, 
of General Kearney moving toward the hill. 

" ' Question. Did you bear that order to General Kearney in your 
character of aid-dc-camp to Commodore Stockton, the commander-in- 
chief? 

" ' .Answer. Yes. 

" ' Question by the judge advocate. Do you recollect the words and 
manner in which you delivered that order ; did you deliver it, so that 
General Kearney must have received it as an order, or merely as a sug- 
gestion? 



306 LIFE AND SKRVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

" ' Answer. I carried it as an order, in the usual, respectful way. 
How General Kearney received it, I, of course, cannot say. He did not 
show by his manner, that it was disagreeable to him, according to the 
best of my recollection.' 

"Finally, I shall conclude this point, by showing that General Kearney 
did not, and could not, at any time, have considered himself the com- 
mander of the expedition, or of the troops composing it, and was not so 
considered by the army officers who had accompanied him into Cali- 
fornia, and were there. Because, 

" 1. The place which General Kearney held in the expedition was that 
which had been before assigned to a lieutenant of the navy, serving 
under Commodore Stockton, and this General Kearney knew. This is the 
testimony of Commodore Stockton : 

" ' After the forces had been paraded preparatory to the march, and I 
was about mounting my horse. General Kearney came to me and inquired, 
" who was to command the troops ?" I said to him. Lieutenant Rowan, 
first lieutenant of the Cyane, would command th^eni. He gave me to 
understand that he would like to command the troops, and after some 
further conversation on the subject, I agreed to appoint him to the com- 
mand, and immediately sent for Lieutenant Rowan,' &c. 

" 2. Because, at the moment of receiving the appointment, he was 
informed that the command-in-chief was reserved by Commodore Stock- 
ton. This is Commodore Stockton's testimony to this point : 

" ' I immediately sent for Lieutenant Rowan, and, assembling the 
officers that were near at hand, stated to them that General Kearney 
had volunteered to take command of the troops, but that I retained my 
ovm position as commander-in-chief. I directed my aid-de-camp, and 
the commissary who was with me, to take a note of what I said on the 
occasion.' 

" And to the same effect is the testimony of Lieutenant Gray and 
Lieutenant Minor, and the certificate of Lieutenant Rowan. 

" 3. Because both General Kearney and the officers under him, received 
and obeyed the orders of Commodore Stockton, in some instances im 
opposition to those first given by General Kearney, both on the march 
and in the battles. The evidence on this point need not be recajiitulated. 
Commodore Stockton testifies to it. Lieutenant Gray testifies to it. Lieu- 
tenant Minor testifies to it, and Lieutenant Emory testifies to have received 
and obeyed ordei-s from Commodore Stockton. 

" 4. Because Lieutenant Emory, attached to General Kearney's dragoon 
escort, and actmg as' assistant adjutant general, did not make his official 
report of losses in action in the expedition to General Kearney, but to 



THE DEFENCE. 307 

Commodore Stockton. True, General Kearney says this was done ' witnout 
his knowledge or consent ;' but that is only the stronger proof that he was 
not regarded or respected as the commander-in-chief, even by his con- 
fidential supporters and military family. 

" 5.- Because he admitted to Colonel Russell, as appears repeatedly in 
Colonel Russell's testimony, that he was serving €7idcr Commodore Stock- 
ton, and had been serving under him from San Diego. 

" 6. Because when I delivered to him, and he read in my presence, my 
letter to him of 1*7 th January, in which is this passage : 

" ' / learned also in conversatio7i iviih you, that on the march from San 
Dier/o, recently, to this place, you entered upon, and discharged duties 
implying an acknowledgment on your part of supremacy to Commodore 
Stockton,' he made no denial of it, or objection to it. 

"7. Because on the 16th of January he applied, in writing, to Com- 
modore Stockton, ' advising ' and ' offering ' ' to take one-half ' of the 
command, and march to form a junction,' &c., addressing Commodore 
Stockton in that letter as ' governor of California, commanding United 
States forces.' 

" On the eighth day of the trial General Kearney testified as follows : 

" Question. — Do you know whether the officers of the battalion raised 
it and marched it under commission from Commodore Stockton ? 

" Answer. — I have always understood that Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont 
had raised that battalion under the direction of Commodore Stockton. 

" Question. — With what commission ? 

" Answer. — I never heard of Commodore Stockton conferring a cotnmis- 
sion on Lieutenant- Colonel Fremont, further than having appointed him 
military commandant of California. 

" The object of this inquiry was not, by any means, to get an oppor- 
tunity to discredit the witness. The object was to ascertain before the 
court that the battalion was enlisted, organized, and officered exclusively 
under naval authority, and so, of course, subject to the orders of the 
naval commander ; and also to ascertain if these facts were not within the 
knowledge of the witness when he attempted to get command of the 
battalion in opposition to Commodore Stockton ; both bein-g inquiries 
pertinent to the issues of the trial, and the facts being what was desired. 
But the nature of the last answer was such as to leave the original 
inquiries unsettled, and to open a new one. 

" The answer was this : ' I never Jieard of Commodore Stockton's con- 
ferring a commission on Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont, further than having 
appointed him military commandant of Cahfornia.' 



dOo LIFE AND SERVICES OF JODN C. FREMONT. 

'"And the new question raised was whether, in fact, the witness had 
' never heard'' of a matter so notorious in that country. Accordingly, on 
the next day General Kearney having mentioned the receipt on the IGth 
of December, 1840, of a certain comnumication from Commodore Stock- 
ton, this question was put. 

" Question. — Did not Commodore Stockton, in that communication, 
inform yon that Captain Fremont had been appointed by him Major, 
and Lieutenant Gillespie, of the marines, captain in the California 
battalion ? 

" And a copy of the paper having been shown to the witness, he 
answered : 

" Answer. — Among the papers sent to me by Commodore Stockton on 
the 16th of December, ^uas a copy of his letter to the Navy Department, 
dated August 28, 1846, the second paragraph of which states that he had 
organized a Cahfornian battalion of mounted riflemen, by tlie appoint- 
ment of all the necessary officers, and received tliem as volunteers in the 
service of the United States ; that Captain Fremont was appointed major, 
and Lieutenant Gillespie, captain of the battalion. 

" Again, on the 13th day of the trial, two other papers were shown to 
the witness, with this question : 

" Were not copies of these two papers, describing him (Fremont) as 
Major Fremont, among those furnished to you by Commodore Stockton 
at San Diego. And were not copies of them filed in the War Department 
Dy you since your returiL from California, and after your arrival in this 
city in September last? 

" Answer. — (After reading over the papers,) I think that copies of 
these papers were furnixhed to me hy Commodore Stockton. To the latter 
part of the question, ' were they not filed by you in the War Department 
since your return from California, and after your arrival in this city in 
September last ?' I see on the papers the certificate of Captain Townsend 
that I did so ; T think Captain Townsend is mistaken. 

''But on the following day he admitted that Captain Townsend was 
not mistaken ; that the papers had been put into hiS hands by Commodore 
Stockton in December, 1846, and had been tiled by him in the war office 
as late as the 21st of September last. From all this, however, it only 
resulted that he had seen of the appointment of Fremont as major : that 
he had ' never heard ' of it, was not yet disproved. 

" This was accomphshed in his testimony on the ninth day, when he 
admitted as follows : 

" ' Commodore Stockton did inform me, in the conversation alluded to 
between us, that California had been conquered in July and August of 



THE DEFENCE. 309 

the same year (this conversation was held in December), and that Major 
Fremont had gone to the north to raise men,' &c. 

" In the same connection, and for the same purpose, the question 
arose, whether Lieutenant Gillespie, of the marine corps, was not also an 
ofiiccr of the battalion ; and tlie answer of X\\e witness was again such as 
not only to leave the original question open, but to raise the new one, 
which brings the subject within this branch of my defence. The wit- 
nesses' answer was as follows : 

" ' Captain Gillespie had marched with me from San Diego to Los 
Angeles, and was serving under me. If his coonpany was with the Cali- 
fornia battalion I did not know it.' 

" It appeared, however, on examination, that the same communication 
(of 2Sth August, 1846), that informed the witness that Fremont had 
been appointed major of the battalion, also informed him that Gillespie 
had been appointed captain in it. It further appeared, that in the sur- 
geon's list of killed and wounded in the actions of the 8th and 9th of 
January, furnished by Lieutenant Emory to General Kearney, and by him 
sent to the department, Captain Gillespie is reported as an officer of the 
California battalion; and Captain Gillespie himself gave the following 
emphatic testimony : 

*' ' Question. Did you at any time communicate to General Kearney 
your rank and position in the California battalion ? If so, when and 
where was that communication made ? 

'' Answer. / did communicate to General Kearney my position in the 
battalion, on the 5th of December, 1840, about one o'clock in the day, 
in the mountains about half way between Santa Maria and Santa Isabel. 
When I met him I was at the head of a detachment of volunteers amd 
sailors, I having been ordered by Commodore Stockton to proceed to 
Warner's Pass to communicate with General Kearney.' 

" These inquiries concerning the raising and oflScering of the batta- 
lion were matters connected intimately with the issues of the trial, 
and the answers of the witness seem to indicate a consciousness of it. 
But I do not desire to present them in any other light than as instances 
of defective arid equivocating memory, and in that view, affecting the 
general credit of his testimony. 

" Under the same infirmity of memory I am willing to class the extra- 
ordinary facility of omission betrayed by the witness, in his manner, 
which seems to be habitual, of half-telling, where whole-telling is essen- 
tial. Thus : On the third day of the trial he commences an answer in 
these words: ' About the 14th of January, 1847, I received irova. Lieuten- 



310 LITE AND SERVICES OF JOHN 0. FREMONT. 

ant Colonel Fremont a communication, dated,' &c., — the inference being, 
of course, that my communication was voluntary ; the fact (and most im- 
portant one, too,) being, that it was drawn out by no less than four 
importunate letters that I had before received. Again, in continuation 
of the same narration : ' On the day bubsequcjit, viz., on the 17th of 
January, Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont came to my quarters, and in con- 
versation,' &c., — the inference being, of course, tliat I went at my own 
instance, whereas the fact (most material and relevant, and deciding the 
character of the interview) turned out, that I went in compliance with 
the written request of the witness to see me ' on business.' Again, same 
day: 'I was first met by a detachment from Commodore Stockton,' &c. 

. . . ' It ca?7ie from Commodore Stockton, to give me information,' 
&c. ; the inference being, that it went voluntarily, or was sent by Com- 
modore Stockton of his own motion ; the important fact appearing, how- 
ever, when Commodore Stockton came on the stand, three weeks after, 
that it was sent out at the written request of General Kearney, for a party 
' to open communication with him,' &c. So, in the same letter, making 
this apphcation, he writes to Commodore Stockton as follows : ' Your 
express, bij Mr. Carson, was met on t/t^ Del Norte, and your mail must 
have reached Washington at least ten days since, ' — omitting the material 
fact, that Mr. Carson, in addition to being met, was likewise ttcrned back ; 
and leaving the inference, that he had gone on. Again, in his testimony 
on the sixth day of the trial, speaking of his position on the hiU of San 
Bernardo, the witness says : ' I stated to the doctor and others, that we 
would leave next morning, which we accordingly did ; Lieutenant Gray, 
of the navy, with a gallant command of sailors and marines, having come 
into our cainp the night previous,^ — the inference being, that Lieutenant 
Gray and his command came voluntarily, or by chance, into the camp ; 
the fact being, that it was a detachment of two hundred and fifteen men, 
sent from San Diego expressly for the relief of General Kearney's camp, 
and in pursuance of his repeated urgent calls for succor — one of them 
(that by Lieutenant Beale, Mr. Carson, and the Indian) conveyed tlirough 
the enemy's lines and an insurgent population, under circumstances of 
devotion and courage unsurpassed, but no mention of which is found in 
the oflScial report, or any part of the testimony of General Kearney. 

" I give these as examples, taken only from two days' proceedings, of 
a vast deal of the same sort of testimony, running through General 
Kearney's examination. 

" The testimony of General Kearney, in relation to the charges, is the 
next point to wliich I advert, under this head of my defence. On the 
sixth day of the trial. General Kearney testifies as follows : 



THE DEFENCK. 311 

" ' The charges on which Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont is now arraigned 
are not my charges. I preferred a single charge against Lieut. Colonel 
Fremont. The charges on which he is now arraigned have been changed 
from mine.' ********** 

'' Question (by Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont). Did you give any infor- 
mation to 'the person who drew up the seventh specification under the 
first charge, in relation to the cannon ? 

" Answer. I did not. 

" This testimony was promptly communicated to the War Office, by 
my counsel, for the purpose of ascertaining upon whose (if not General 
Kearney's), information the charge had been drawn up, as matter neces- 
•jary to be known, unless I would proceed in my defence against un- 
known and secret prosecutors ; the adjutant general, by direction of the 
Secretary of War, returned for answer the emphatic assurance, that the 
charges and specifications produced to the court, '■were based upon facts 
alleged and officially reported to the department by General Kearney ; and 
it is not known or understood that any charge or specification has been 
introduced, based on facts derived from any otlier source whatever.^ 

"In addition to this po.sitive contradiction by the department, the 
charges came to the court certified upon their face as being preferred 
' upo7i information of Brigadier General S. W. Kearney ;' and myself and 
counsel are further informed, by the judge advocate, that the seventh 
specification of the first charge is copied literally from the charge fur- 
nished by General Kearney in his own hand-writing. 

" This inquiry into the charges, leads naturally to the subject upon 
which that inquiry arose, viz. : a certain mountain howitzer, lost by Gene- 
ral Kearney at the battle of San Pasqual, and recovered by me at the 
capitulation of Couenga. The inquiry was not originally made, with any 
view or expectation that an untrue answer would be given to it, and 
hence an opportunity arise for contradicting the testimony of the witness. 
On the contrary, the object of the inquiry was truth. It was to ascer- 
tain whether the recovery by me, of a cannon so lost by General Kearney, 
had Ijeen reported by him to the department ; and, if not, the argument 
would be to the impeachment of the temper and motive towards me ; for 
the loss of cannon is always a source of mortification, and its recovery a 
subject of gratulatiou and honorable report. It turned out that the 
recovery had 7iot been reported, but to escape the inference thus raised 
the witness pleaded want of sufficient knowledge of the fact. This, then, 
became the point at issue ; and to say that this is an incidental question, 
upon which the answer of the witness must suffice, whether true or false, 
is to say that he may escape from the consequences of one wrong, by 



312 LIFE AND 6ERYICES OF JOHN C. FKEMONT. 

committing a greater ; that a fact cannot be proved going to impeach his 
motives if he chooses to deny it wjth a falsehood. But it is the rule of 
law and justice that 'a man shall not profit by his own, wrong;' and, 
therefore, I did not consider myself concluded by the answer of the wit- 
ness ; but, finding by inspection of the charges, that the witness (who I 
had understood was the sole accuser against me) had sufficient knowledge 
concerning the cannon, to impute tlie having of it to me as a crime, I 
inferred'that he ought to have had sufiScient knowledge of it, to report 
the gaining of it to my credit. Hence, I continued the inquiry with 
the following question : 

" ' In the seventh specification, under the first charge, you charge 
Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont with refusing to give up two cannon which 
had been brought from Fort Leavenworth, and which were then at San 
Gabriel. Will you state what cannon they were, how they were brought 
from Fort Leavenworth, and how they got to San Gabriel ?' 

" And hence arose the sweeping declarations already examined, that 
these charges ' were not his ;' that they ' had been changed from his ;' 
and that he ' did not ' furnish the information concerning the cannon on 
which the seventh specification of charge first was drawn up. After 
which he continued his answer in these words : 

" ' The two howitzers, however, referred to, are the two howitzers 
brought by the first dragoons from Fort Leavenworth to California ; one 
of them, as was previously stated, was lost at San Pasqual ; the other we 
took with us.' 

" ' Question. Do you know that one of those cannon was the one lost 
by you at San Pasqual ? 

" ' Answer. I no not.' 

" Two days after, he comes into court with this ' explanation :' ' In 
reading over in the papers this morning the proceedings of Monday, I 
find the following question put to me by the accused, and my answer 
thereto, as follows : 

" ' Question. Do you know that one of those cannon was the one lost 
by you at San Pasqual ? 

" ' Answer. I do not.' 

" ' I have now to explain that I had no personal knowledge of it; I had 
a knowledge of it from an official report made to my staflF oflScer by 

LlECTENANT CoLONEL CoOKE.' 

" Now, on this point. General Kearney is contradicted by his own wit- 



THE DEFENCE. 313 

neaa ; for Lieutenant Colonel Cooke testifies to having received from 
Geueral Kearney orders in relation to the cannon before he ever made 
any report on the subject. 

" This is from Major Cooke's testimony in chief, delivered on the four- 
teenth day of the trial : 

" ' On the 24</t of March, I rode out from Los Angeles to the mission 
of San Gabriel, accompanied, ^c. I called on Captain Owens at his 
quartets, and shortly after asked to look at the artillery. He showed 
them to me in the court of the mission, and I observed two mountain howit' 
zers, which I beheved had been brought to that country by the dragoons. 
/ had received verbal instructions from General Kearney, by Captain Tur- 
ner, to have them turned over to company C, under my command ; and 
had, bejbre I left town, ordered mules and drivers to be sent after 

THEM.' 

" This relates to occurrences of the iith of March, whilst the verbal 
instructions ' referred to, afterward ascertained to be written memoranda, 
were issued from Monterey about the lat of March, and the only report 
made upon the subject by Major Cooke was oi March 25th. 

" This Is Major Cooke's testimony to these points (eighteenth day of 
the trial) : 

" ' Question. Is your letter or report of the 25th March, which was 
read in your cross-examination of Thursday, your official report to your 
superior officer ? and does it refer to the same events as those narrated 
in your testimony ? and did you ever make any other official report of 
those occurrences to General Kearney, or to any other officer for him? 

" ' Answer. It was my official report. It refers to the same subject as my 
evidence in chief. I do not remember having made any other report to 
him or to any one else. 

" ' Question. Did you have any verbal or special order in relation to 
ordnance, arms, &c. ? 

" ' Answer. I had some verbal orders in relation to arms, communi- 
cated, however, in the form of loritten memoranda. * * » 
I have them not here. I lost all my papers by an accident, &c. 

" ' Question. Will you state the tenor of those orders and instructions, 
giving the words &e. far as possible, and whom they came from ? 

" ' Answer. They came from General Kearney. I was directed, I be- 
lieve, to put the howitzers in charge of the dragoons. 
* * * * I received, at the sanu time an official 

Utter from General Kearney.' 

14 



314 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMCNT 

" A copy of this official letter was produced the next day. and^'rund to 
be dated at Monterey, March 1, which fixes the time of those 'verbal 
orders' or 'written memoranda.' Finally, on the nineteenth and twen- 
tieth days of the trial, Major Cooke again testifies, concerning the same 
verbal instructions as follows : 

" ' Under ordinary circumstances, I should have deemed it my duty t? 
have enfbrced my orders in relation to the artillery, founded on the verbal 
orders of the general. The verbal orders alluded to might be considered 
as giving higher importance, in my view, to the object to be attained, 
which was to turn over to company C, Ist dragoons, the two mountain 
howitzers.'' 

'•'■ From all which, it results that General Kearney's first information cou- 
cerning the cannon was not received through Major Cooke's report, but, 
that the report resulted, in fact, from orders about the cannon, given 
by General Kearney Several weeks before the report was made. 

" The first great allegations, then, made by General Kearney to escape 
from the original simple and comparatively innocent fact supposed by the 
inquiry concerning the cannon, are contradicted, in their whole essence, 
by the official assurance of the Secretary of War, by the charges as they 
are certified by the judge advocate to the court, and by the original 
draft of accusations against me in General Kearney's own hand ; while hi? 
subsequent ' explanation ' to escape from this labyrinth, by attempting to 
draw a distinction between personal knotdedge and official knowledge 
involves him in the repudiation of his own orders, and in a double contra- 
diction with himself and with Major Cooke, his own witness. 

" I think it proper, I think it my duty, tQ introduce here some maxims 
of the law, which, I am advised, are recognized in all courts. 

" Where it turns out that a witness's testimony is corruptly fiUse ia 
any particular, it should be entirely disregarded by the jury. 

" A witness's credibility being seriously impeached by written, or other 
plain, deliberate contradictory statement by him, and not supported, 
ought, it would se«m, to be entirely rejected. 

" But where a party speaks to a fact, in reference to which he cannot 
be presumed liable to mistake, if the fact turn out otherwise, it is ex- 
tremely difficult to exempt him from the charge of deliberate falsehood; 
and courts of justice, under such circumstances, are bound upon princi- 
ples of law, morahty, and justice, to apply the maxim, ^falsus in uHo,fal- 
sus in omnibus.^ — false ik onr, false in all. (See Phillips on Evi- 
dence, vol. iii. pp. ZQl and 772.) 

" Mr. President : The length of this defence precludes the necessity 



VEKDICT OF THE COURT MAKTIAL. 315 

of recapitulation. I omit it, and go to the conclusion with a few brief 
reflections, as pertinent, I trust, as tney are true. 

" I consider these difficulties in California to be a comedy — (very near 
being a tragedy) — of three errors : first, in the faulty orders sent out 
from this place ; Hext^'m the unjustifiable pretensions of General Kearney ; 
thirdly, in the conduct of the government in sustaining these pre- 
tensions. And the last of these errors I consider the greatest of the 
three. 

" Certainly the difficulties in California ought to be inquired into ; but 
how ? Not by prosecuting the subordinate, but the principals ; not by 
prosecuting him who prevented, but him who would have made civil war 
If it was a crime in me to accept the governorship from Commodore 
Stockton, it was a crime in him to have bestowed it ; and in either event, 
crime or not, the government which knew of his intention to appoint 
me, and did not forbid it, has lost the right of prosecuting either 
of us. 

" My acts in California have all been with high motives, and a desire 
for the public service. My scientific labors did something to open Cali- 
fornia to the knowledge of my countrymen ; its geography had been a 
sealed book. My miUtary operations were conquests without bloodshed ; 
my civil administration was for the public good. I offer CaUfornia, 
during my administration, for comparison with the most tranquil portion 
of the United States : I offer it in contrast to the condition of New 
Mexico during the same time. I prevented civil war against Governor 
Stockton, by refusing to join General Kearney against him : I arrested 
civil war against myself, by consenting to be deposed — offering at the 
same time to resign my post as Ueutenant colonel in the army. 

" I have been brought as a prisoner and a criminal from that country. 
I could return to it, after this trial is over, without rank or guards, and 
without molestation from the people, except to be importuned for the 
money which the government owes them. 

" I am now ready to receive the sentence of the court." 

The reading of this defence, which occupied three ses- 
sions of the court, was concluded on the 26th of January, 
1848. The three succeeding days were spent in dehber- 
ating upon the case, and on the day following, January 
31, the court rendered its verdict of " guilty " on all the 
charges, and sentenced the accused to be dismissed 
from the service. 



31 G ■ LIFE AND BER VICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT, 

Accompanying the verdict, were the following ])aper8, 
which were directed to be made parts of the record. 
The first, signed by the President of the Court, Bt. Brig, 
General Brooke, Lieut, Col. Taylor, and Major Baker, 
was as follows : 

"Under the circumstances in which Lieutenant Col. Fremont 
was placed between two officers of superior renk, each claiming 
to command-in-chief in California — circumstances in their nature 
calculated to embarrass the mind, and excite the doubts of 
officers of greater experience than the accused : and, in conside- 
ration of the important professional services rendered by him, 
previous to the occurrence of the acts for which he has been 
tried, the undersigned, members of the court, respectfully com- 
mend Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont to the lenient consideration of 
the President of the United States." 

Tlie other, signed by Lieutenant Colonel Long, Lieu- 
tenants-Colonel Morgan, and Major Delafield, was a 
follows : 

"Under all the circumstances of this case, and in considera- . 
tion of the distinguished professional ser\'ices of the accused, 
previous to the transactions for which he has now been tried, 
the undersigned beg leave to recommend him to the clemency 
of the President of the United States." 

President Polk refused to confirm the verdict of the 
court, as to the first charge, but " approved " of the 
sentence, which, however, he immediately remitted. 
Tlie following was his order in the case : 

" Upon an inspection of the record, I am not satisfied that 
the facts proved in this case constitute the military crime of 
' mutiny.' I am of opinion that the second and third char^^^.s 



VERDICT OF THE COURT MARTIAL. Sl'i 

are sustained by the proof, and that the conviction upon these 
charges warrants the sentence of the court. The sentence of the 
court is therefore approved ; but, in consideration of the pecu- 
Mar circumstances of the case, of the previous meritorious and 
valuable services of Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont, and of the 
foregoing recommendations of a majority of the members of the 
court, the penalty of dismissal from the service is remitted. 

" Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont will accordingly be released 
from arrest, will resume his sword, and report for duty. 

"James K. Polk." 

Upon receiving notice of the result of the trial, 
Colonel Fremont addressed the following letter to the 
Adjutant-General : 

"■Washinqton Citt, C Street, Feb. 19, 1848. 

*' Sir : I have this moment received the general order. No. 7 
(dated the l7th instant), maliing known to me the final decision 
in the proceedings of the general court-martial, before which 1 
have been tried ; and hereby send in my resignation of lieu- 
tenant-colonel in the array of the United States. 

"In doing this, I take the occasion to say that my reason for 
resigning is that I do not feel conscious of having done anything 
to merit the finding of the court ; and, this being the case, I 
cannot, by accepting the clemency of the President, admit the 
justice of the decision against me. 

" Very respectfully your obedient servant. 

"J. C. Fremont." 

The President did not act upon this resignation for 
some time, and as the President's acceptance was 
necessary to give it legal effect, Col. Fremont addressed 
the adjutant-general a note to that effect on the 14th 
of March, and received a reply on the following day 
announcing the acceptance of his resignation from that 



318 LIFE AND SEEVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

date. Thus, on the 15th daj of May, 1848, and in the 
34th year of his age, Col. Fremont's connection with the 
military profession terminated, and his manhood once 
more resumed its natural proportions.* 

* " In pursuance of his original intentions as communicated to the 
government in August, 1846, Commodore Stockton appointed Colonel 
Fremont civil governor of California, and Colonel William H. Russell, 
eecretary. Governor Fremont immediately entered oft the duties of his 
office, and the people acquiesced in his exercise of authority. 

" The commodore and his maritime army returned to the squadron. 

" The performance of his duties as governor of California by Col. Fremont 
were incompatible with the authority which General Kearney attempted 
to exercise over him by virtue of seniority of rank, notwithstanding the 
President and Secretary of War both justified the appointment of Colonel 
Fremont by Commodore Stockton, as civil governor of California, yet 
nevertheless he was permitted to be brought to trial on charges of diso- 
bedience preferred by General Kearney. He was found guilty on several 
charges and specifications, by a court evidently disposed to favor General 
Kearney. The finding of the court was approved in part by the Presi- 
dent, but the sentence remitted. 

"Indignant with the injustice and inconsistency manifested by the 
government. Colonel Fremont promptly resigned his commission in the 
army. 

" Towards the close of the Mexican war, the army was powerful and 
popular at Washington. The esprit de corps of mihtary gentlemen was 
piqued and offended with Fremont's deference to a naval commander, 
and his sacrifice was demanded. The President and Secretary of War 
had not the moral courage and firmness which the occasion required, and 
Colonel Fremont was driven from the army." — Life of Commodore Stock- 
ton, p. 154. 



.FOUETH EXPLORES G EXPEDITION. 319 



^ CHAPTER XL 

COLONEL FREMONT PROJECTS A FOURTH EXPLORING EXPEDI- 
TION — CALIFORNIA CLAIMS BILL SPEECHES OF SENATORS 

BENTON, CLARKE AND DIX MAP AJSHD GEOGRAPHICAL 

MEMOIR REPORT OF SENATOR BREESE PROFESSOR 

TORREt's PLANTiE FREm6nTIAN.<E GOLDEN ISIEDAL FROM 

THE KING OF PRUSSIA LETTER FROM HUMBOLDT 

founder's MEDAL FROM THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL 

SOCIETT OF LONDON LETTERS FROM JOHN M. CLAYTON 

AND ABBOTT LAWRENCE REPLY OF COLONEL FREMONT. 

When Mr. Fremont abandoned the profession for 
wliicli he had accomplished himself, and sat himself 
down the morning after his resignation was accepted, to 
determine what useful end the remainder of his life 
should be devoted to, he was but thirty-four years of 
age. "Within that period he had attached his name 
imperishably to the historical, geographical, scientific 
and political history of his country. The highest peak 
of the longest chain of mountains on this continent had 
accepted his name in token of his being its first explorer ; 
the plants which bloomed on its sides and in its valleys, 
had received from liim their nomenclature ; as the 
deliverer of California from Mexican misrule, he had 
identified himself for ever with the most durable tradi- 



320 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FKEMONT. 

tions of that wonderful State; as a geographer he had 
won the homage of the whole scientific world ; and 
Anally he had achieved among his own countrymen a 
popularity more unanimous and more universal than liad 
ever befo*e been enjoyed by any one of his years. These 
reflections were well calculated to sooth any mortifica- 
tion, if he had felt any, at the result of the court martial. 
Starting life without means and aided only by the friends 
he had made himself, and his own energies, he had 
reached distinction before he had reached tiie maturity 
of his faculties ; and, before most men have begun their 
career he was covered with honoi 3 enough for the close 
of his. 

None of these considerations, however, disposed him 
to idleness. On the contrary his plans for a laborious 
and useful future were soon formed. While in Califor- 
nia he had made arrangements for the purchase of the 
tract of land known as the Mai-aposas, of the value of 
which he had informed himself during his third expedi- 
tion. Upon this he determined to settle as soon as he 
liad demonstrated the practicability of uniting the 
Atlantic and Pacific States by a public highway. This 
he resolved to do before allowing himself any but neces- 
sary repose, and soon made his arrangements for a 
new trip across the plains, the following winter. 

The intervening period was occupied in doing what he 
could to procure a settlement of the bills incurred in 
the conquest and defence of California in 1847, and in 
making up a report of the scientific results of his last 
expedition. 

•On the 1st of February, the military committee of 
the Senate, consisting of Messrs. Cass, Benton,Crittenc^en, 
Dix, Rusk and Davis, commenced an investigation in 



CALirOKNIA CLAIMS. 321 

relation to the claims above referred to, amounting in 
all tc some $700,000 for the payment of which amount 
a bill was afterwards introduced. The beneficiaries of 
this bill and its general provisions are described witli 
sufficient minuteness in the following parag^'aph near 
the close of a speech made in its favor by Senator 
Benton. 

"The California battalion, formed out of the American settlers 
on the Sacramento and the men of the topographical party (re 
inforced afterwards by later emigrants from the United States), 
finished on the Plains of Couenga the movement which had 
commenced at Sonoma, and in the same spii'it of justice, mode- 
ration and patriotism. In conjunction with the sailors and ma- 
rines, they had twice conquered California before the United 
States troops arrived in the country. They did it without aid 
from the United States — without quartermasters, commissaries, 
and paymasters to carry feed and pay them. The fruits of all 
their labors have been received by the United States, and the 
bill rendered is only seven hundred thousand dollars — a fraction 
only of the amount paid to those who arrived after the work was 
done. It should have been provided for in one of the public 
bills. It is an appropriation, and of a public nature, and of a 
most sacred nature. It should at least have had a place in that 
"Deficiency" bill of fourteen millions, which lately passed 
Congress, for what can be more deficient than non-payment, for 
almost two years for such extraordinary services ? Even if this 
bill is passed at once and with the least possible delay from legis- 
lative forms, it will still be almost half a year before the claim- 
ants can begin to touch their pay. The bill is carefully drawn, 
both with a view to public^nd to piivate justice. It is intended to 
settle up and pay up all just claims, and to close the door for- 
ever upon all false ones. A conuuissioner acqi'«.inted with the sub- 
ject, familiar with every transaction, is togotoCaSifornia, visit every 
district in which claims are originated, call all before tliera, allow 



o22 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FEEMONT. 

ibe good, reject the bad, and bar all ibat are not presented to them. 
In this way, and in this alone, can justice bo done to all parties, just 
claimants saved from the depredations of agents and speculators; 
the United States saved from paying false accounts, and California 
prevented from becoming a mine for the production of false 
claims for half a century to come. The great and main facts that 
services have been rendered, that the United States have received 
the benefits of these services, and that they have not been paid 
for, are established by the depositions ; the mode of settlement, 
and the detail of payment, is directed by the bill." 

Senator Clarke of Rhode Island, in the course of a 
long and able speech upon the same subject paid the fol- 
lowing tribute to Col. Fremont's services. 

"Mr. President : The former explorations of Col. Fremont 
throurrli the wilderness of the extreme West, have given him an 
enviable reputation in the world of science. His maturity of 
thought, and polished and cultivated intellect, united to a firm 
resolution, and a courage that never quailed — all eminently fitted 
him for the mission he so well and so readily undertook and 
performed. His energy of character qualified him for the posi- 
tion in which his government had placed him. If we condemn this 
invasion of the territory of a friendly power, I would not be under- 
stood as reflecting upon the man, who in obedience to his govern- 
ment, conducted that invasion and carried out those wishes to 
the entire subjugation of the country. I would not, sir, take a 
feather from his plume, nor a sprig from the garland that encir- 
cles his brow. Whatever may be the rigid rules of war, 
or the technicalivies of the service under which this officer has 
suff'ered, his honor is untarnished — his.high reputation as a sol- 
dier is unspotted — the crowning act of his eventful life is fresh 
in our recollection. When the commission which he bore, and 
which he would have yielded up only with his life, became tainted 
with censure, firmly he tendered it back to the executive whom he 



CALIFORNIA CLAIMS. 323 

Lad obeyed, and to the country which he had served so faithfully. 
He is nosv a citizen amongst us, and deserves all our confidence. 
He is identified with the events in California, and who so fittino 
as he do bring these claims to a just and proper conclusien ?" 

In the course of the same debate, Senator Dix of New 
York, expressed the following opinion of Mr. Fremont 
and his public services. 

"In the execution of these objects, the young and accom- 
plished oflScer at the head of our troops, Col. Fremont, exhibited 
a combination of energy, promptitude, sagacity and prudence, 
which indicated the highest capacity for civdl and military com- 
mand ; and, in connection with what he has done for the cause 
of science, it has given him a reputation at home and abroad, of 
which men much older and more experienced than himself might 
well be proud. That the country will do justice to his valuable 
and distinguished services, I entertain not the slightest doubt. * 
* * * The objects accomplished by Col. Fremont, as subse- 
quent developments have shown, were far more important than 
those I have referred to. There is no doubt that his rapid and 
decisive movements kept California out of the hands of Britisl/ 
subjects, and perhaps out of the hands of the British government, 
and it is in this point of view that I desire to present the subject 
to Senate. * * * * * It is in this point of view that 
the transaction possesses the greatest interest and importance, 
and that the sagacity, promptitude and decision of our youthful 
commander in California, at the time the disturbance broke out, 
have given him the strongest claims ou his countrymen. Any 
faltering on his part — any hesitancy in acting, and acting 
promptly — might have cost us millions of dollars and thousands 
of lives ; and it might also have cost us a contest of which the 
end is not readily foreseen." 

Col. Fremont has never published any report either 



324 LIFE AND SKRVICE3 OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

of liis third or subsequent expeditions. The fullest 
account of the third which has been made will be found 
in the preceding pages. On the 5th of June, the Senato 
ordered twenty tliousand copies of a map of Ol-egon 
and California which he finished about that time. And 
likewise printed a Geographical Memoir of Upper Cali- 
fornia, illustrative of the map. This work gives the 
most compendious view of the scientific results of his 
explorations, and on the whole reflects most credit upon 
his inductive faculties and powers of statement. The want 
of a more complete record of his discoveries, in legislat- 
ing for our Pacific possessions was seriously felt by the 
Senate, and they appointed a select committee to inquire 
into the expediency of providing for the publication of 
a third exj^edition as a National "Work. Senator 
Breese of Illinois, the chairman of the committee, made 
an elaborate report in favor of the publication, in the 
course of which he speaks of the map and the Geo- 
graphical Memoir as follows : 

" This map and memoir, though hastily prepared, and as a 
mere preliminary to a full work, increase the reputation of their 
author, and give valuable information to the statesman and to 
the farmer, to the astronomer and the geographer, to the man of 
science in the walks of botany and meteorology. But they 
must be regarded only as a sample of the results of that expedi- 
tion, from the view of which the value of the whole may be 
judged. As far as the exploration has been carried, everythhig 
necessary to show climate, soil, and productions, has been col- 
lected. More than one thousand specimens in botany, a great 
number in geology and mineralogy, with engravings of birds 
and animals, and remarkable scenery, and a large collection of 
the skins of birds with the plumage preserved, have been, as the 
committee are informed, brought home to enrich the stores and 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANICAL SCIENCE. 325- 

add to the sum of human knowledge. The botanical s) ecimeiis 
examined by Dr; Torrey are deemed by him of great value and 
worthy of the expense of European engraving, if not done by 
our own government.* 

The botanical stores referred to by the Senatorial 
Committee were deposited with Professor Torrey, who 
prepared a memoir in relation to them for the Smithso- 
nian Institute, by whom they were beautifully engraved, 
and published in 1850.f A more precise idea of xheir 
value may be gathered from the following passage with 
which Torrey commences his memoir. 



DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME NEW PLANTS COLLECTED BY COLONEL 
J. C. FREMONT IN CALIFORNIA. 

"The important services rendered to science by that distin- 
guished traveller, Colonel Fremont, are known to all who have 
read the reports of his hazardous journeys, &c. 

" He has not only made valuable additions to the geographical 
knowledge of our remote possessions, but has greatly increased 
our acquaintance with the geology and natural history of the 
regions which he explored. His first expedition was made in 
the year 1842, and terminated at the Rocky Mountains. He 
examined the celebrated South Pass, and ascended the highest 
mountain of the Wind River chain, now called Fremont's Peak. 
The party moved so rapidly (travelling from the frontier of Mis- 
souri to the mountains, and returning in the short space of four 
months) that much time could not be given to botany. Never- 

* For the full report see Appendix A. 

f Plantce Fremontiance, or descriptions of plants collected- by Colonel 
J. C. Fremont in California, by John Torrey, F.L.S. — Smithsonian Con- 
tributions to Knowledge. 



326 LTFE AND SERVICES OF JOIIN C. FREMONT. 

theless, a collection of three bundred and fifty species of plants 
was made, of which I gave an account in a botanical appendix 
to this first report. The second expedition .of Colonel Fremont 
was that of 1843 and 1844, embracing not only much of the 
ground of which he had previously explored, but extensive 
regions of Oregon and California. In this journey he made 
large collections in places never before visited by a botanist; 
but unfortunately, a great portion of this was lost. In the 
gorges of the Sierra Nevada, a mule loaded with some bales of 
botanical specimens, gathered in a thousand miles of travel, fell 
from a precipice into a deep chasm, from whence they could not 
be recovered. A large part of the remaining collection was 
destroyed, on the return of the expedition, by the flood of the 
Kansas River. Some of the new. and more interesting plants 
that were rescued from destruction, were published in the Bota- 
nical Appendix to Colonel Fremont's Report of the second 
expedition. 

" Very large collections were also made in his third expedi- 
tion in 1845, and the two following years; but again, notwith- 
standing every precaution, some valuable packages were des- 
troyed by the numerous and unavoidable mishaps of such a 
hazardous journey. Very few of the new genera and species 
that were saved have as yet been published, excepting several of 
the Compositals by Dr. Gray, in order that the priority of their 
discovery might be secured by Colonel Fremont. There was 
still another journey to California made by that zealous travel- 
ler ; the disastrous one commenced iHte in the year 1848. Even 
in this he gleaned a few plants, which, with all his other botani- 
cal collections, he kindly placed at my disposal. I had hoped 
that arrangements would have been made by the government 
for the publication of a general account of the botany of Califor- 
nia, but as there is no immediate prospect of such a work being 
undertaken, I have prepared the memoir on some of the more 
interesting new genera, discovered by Colonel Fremont. The 
drawings of the accompanying plates were made by Mr. Isaac 



LETTEE FROM HUMBOLDT. 327 

Spi'ague of Cambridge, Massachusetts, who ranks among the 
most eminent botanical draughtsmen of our day." 

While alluding to the estimate placed upon the 
scierititic results of Col. Fremont's explorations, by 
some of his eminent contemporaries, we may be pardoned 
for anticipating the tributes paid two years later to 
his labors by Baron Humboldt, on behalf of the King 
of Prussia, and by the Royal Geographical Society of 
London. As a minister of the Prussian government, 
Humboldt was charged to present Fremont with " the 
great golden medal for progress in the sciences.''^ He 
accompanied the medal with the following highly 
complimentary note to Fremont, in which a graceful 
allusion is made to that early struggle against slavery 
witii which his political career in California commenced 
and closed. 

'■'■Monsieur le Se^iateur* : II m'est bien doux, Monsieur, de 
vous addresser ces lignes par mon excellent ami, notre ministre 

* Fremont had just been elected to the United States Senate, from 
California. The following is the English translation of Baron Humboldt's 
letter : 
^^To Col. Fremofit, Senator. 

"It is very agreeable to me, sir, to address you these lines by my 
excellent friend, our minister to the United States, M. de Gerolt. After 
having given you, in the new edition of my 'Aspects of Nature,' the 
public testimoay of the admiration which is due to your gigantic labors 
between St. Louis, of Missouri, and the coasts of the South Sea, I feel 
happy to offer you, in this hving token, {dajis ce petit signe de vie) the 
homage of my warm acknowledgment. You have displayed a noble 
courage in distant expeditions, braved all the dangers of cold and 
famine, enriched all the branches of the natural sciences, illustrated a 
vast country which was almost entirely unknown to us. 

"A merit so rare has been acknowledged by a sovereign warmly inte- 
rested in the progress of physical geography; the king orders me to 



328 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FKEMONT. 

aux Etats-Unis, M. de Gerolt. Apres vous avoir donne dans la 
nouvelle ddition de raes Tableaux de la Nature le tdinoignaga 
public de I'admiration qui est due a vos giganlesques travaux 
entre St. Louis du Missouri et les cotes de la mer du Sud, je me 
sens heureux de vous offrir, dans ce petit signe de vie, I'hoin- 
niage de ma vive reconnaissance. Vous avez deploye un noble 
courage dans des expeditions lointaines, brave tout les dangers 
des frimas et du manque de nourriture, enrichi toutes les parties 
de sciences naturelles, illustre un vaste pays qui nous etait pres- 
que entierement inconnu. Un merite si rare a ete reconnu par 
un souverain vivement interesse aux progres de la gdograpbie 
physique: le roi m'ordonne de vous offrir la grande medaille 
d'or, destinee a ceux qui ont travaille a des progres scientifiques. 
J'espere que cette marque de la bienveillance royale vous sera 
agreable dans un moment, ou, sur la proposition de I'illustre 
gdograpbe, Charles Ritter, la Society de Geographic, residante a 
Berlin, vous a norame pour membre honoraire. Quant a moi, 
je dois vous reinercier particulierement aussi de I'honneur que 
vous ra'avez fait d'attacher mon nom et celui de mon collabora- 
teur et ami iutime, M. Bonpland, a des contrees voisines de 
celles qui out etd I'objet de nos travaux. La Californie, c^ui a 

offer you the grand golden medal destined to those who have labored at 
scientific progress. I hope that this mark of the royal good will, will be 
agreeable to you at a time wiien, upon the proposition of the illustrious 
geographer, Chas. Ritter, the Geographical Society at Berlin has named 
you an honorary member. For myself, I must thank you particularly 
also for the houor which yau have done in attaching my name, and that 
of my fellow-laborer and intimate friend, Mr. Bonpland, to countries 
neighboring to those which have been the object of our labors. Califor- 
nia, which has so nobly resisted the introdaction of slavery, will be wor- 
thily represented by a friend of liberty and of the progress of intelli' 
gence. 

"Accept, I pray you, sir, the expression of my high and affectionate 
consideration. 

"Your most humble and most obedient servant, 

"A. V. Humboldt. 

"Sans Souci, October 7, 1850." 



LONDON GEOGKAnilCAL SOCIETY. 829 

nohlement resiste a I'introduction de I'esclavage, sera dignement 
representee par un ami de la liberty et des progres de I'iutelli- 
gence. 

"Agreez, je vous prie, Monsieur le Senateur, I'expression de 
ma haute et atfectueuse consideration. 

" Voire tres humble et tres obeissant serviteur, 

"A.V.Humboldt. 

" A Sans Sonci, le 7 Octobre, 1860." 

On the envelope thus addressed : 

"A Monsieur le Colonel Fremont, Senateur, 
" Avec la grande medaille d'or,* 
"Pour les progres dans les sciences. 

"Baron Humboldt." 

From the Royal Geographical Society Col. Fremont 
received the Founder's medal. It was transmitted to 
him through Abbot Lawrence, then our minister to 
England, and John M. Clayton, Secretary of State, who 
accompanied it with the following letter and its enclo- 
sure. 

LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE TO COLONEL FREMONT.f 

Dbpjlrtmekt of Statb, Washington, June \5th, 1850. 

" Mr Dear Sir : I have the honor to enclose herewith, an 

extract from a dispatch received at this Department yesterday, 

from the Hon. Abbott Lawrence, our Minister in London, from 

which you will perceive that the Royal Geographical Society 

* The medal is of fine gold, massive, more than double the size of the 
American double eagle, and of exquisite workmanship. On the face is 
the medallion head of the king, Frederic William the Fourth, surrounded 
by figures emblematical of Religion, Jurisprudence, Medicine and the 
Arts. On the reverse, Apollo, in the chariot of the sun, drawn by four 
high mettled plunging horses, traversing the zodiac, and darting rays of 
light from his head. 

\ National Intelligencer, June 8tb, 1850. 



830 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FKKMoNT. 

has awarded you tlie " Founder's Medal," for the distinguished 
services which you have rendered to geographical s(;ience. 

" The messenger who bears you this letter, will also deliver 
you the medal. It affords me pleasure to be the immediate 
instrument in conveying to you this high tribute of respect, so 
■well earned by the valuable and distinguished services which 
you have rendered, not only to your own country, but to the 
whole scientific world. 

" I am, sir, very sincerely and truly yours, 

" J. M. Clayton." 
' Hon. J. C. Fremont." 



LETTER FROM THE UNITED STATES MINISTER AT LONDON, TO 
COLONEL FREMONT. 

" London, May 31s<, 1850. 

"Dear Sir: On the 27th inst., I had the honor to receive 
from the President of the Royal Geographical Society the 
Founder's Medal, which was awarded to you by the council of 
that society, for your preeminent services in promoting the cause 
of geographical science. The meeting was public, and the 
reasons for according the medal to you were set forth with 
ability by the President. It became my duty to reply on your 
behalf, which I did very briefly. The proceedings of the meet- 
ing will be published at an early day, when I shall transmit a 
copy to you, I assure you that I feel a proud satisfaction in 
having the opportunity of being present at the Annual Meeting 
of the Society, and receiving this complimentary testimonial of 
merit to a citizen of the United States, who has done so much 
not only in the cause of science, but in every department of 
duty to which he has been called to promote the honor of his 
country. 

"It is ray fervent hope that your life may be long spared to 
enjoy your well earned fame in science, and that your success in 
your new and high position may be commensurate with the 



LONDON GEOGEAPinCAL, SOCIETY. 331 

Darae and fame acquired by arduous labor in your brief but 
brilliant career. 

" I am dear sir most faithfully, 

" Your obedient servant, 

" Abbott Lawrence." 
" To Col. John Charles Fremont, <fec., 

" Washington, D. C." 

EEPLY OF THE UNITED STATES MINISTER TO THE ADDRESS OF 
THE SOCIETY IN PRESENTING THE MEDAL. 

" Mr. President : It is with great pride and satisfaction thai; 
I am here to receive from your hands the medal awarded by 
the Council of the Royal Geographical Society to Col. Fremont. 
In his behalf I thank you, and the gentlemen of the Council and 
the Society, for an honor which I am sure he will appreciate as 
one of the most distinguished that has been conferred upon him 
in his brilliant career. 

" The testimonial could not have been given to a more 
deserving individual. Col. Fremont possesses, in an eminent 
degree, the elements of a just success. He has ability, per- 
Beverance, cultivation and industry, and above all, he is endowed 
with high moral attributes which have won for him the esteem 
of those more immediately connected with him, and the con- 
fidence of his fellow citizens in the country at large, who will 
see with pleasure this day's evidence of your correct appreciation 
of his services to science. 

"But I look upon this award of your Council as something 
more than a tribute to individual worth. I esteem it as a 
national honor; and, as the representative of the United States, 
I ofier you their and my grateful thanks. It is not the least of 
the charms of science that it is not bounded by the limits of 
nations. Its influence is as wide as the world, and new dis- 
coveries, whether in the field of geographical or other science, 
are the common property of mankind. Scientific men form » 



332 LIFE AND 6EKVICE8 OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

common brotherhood throughout all nations, and the harmony 
of feeling between them has done much, and is destined to do 
yet more towards establishing and maintaining the peace of the 
world. 

" The New has incurred a great debt to the Old World, and 
particularly to Great Britain, for scientific knowledge. This 
they hope to repay in some measure at no very distant day. 
We have made rapid strides in the Union within a few yeart*, 
and confidently hope soon to contribute our quota to the common 
stock. Our desire, Mr. President and gentlemen, is persever- 
ingly to maintain with you a friendly competition, having for 
its object the advancement of civilization, and the elevation of 
the condition of man throughout the world. And we fervently 
hope that nothing will recur to prevent this, either by the dis- 
turbance of the peace now happily existing between the nations 
of Europe, or the cessation of the very friendly feeling between 
this country and the United States of America." 



LETTER FROM COL. FREMONT TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAI 
GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 

Washington Citt, Jmii 22;/, 1S50. 

" Sir : I have had the gratification to receive, through the 
hands of the American minister and the Secretary of State, the 
honorable medal with which the Geographical Society has 
distinguished me. 

"In making my acknowledgments for this high testimonial 
of approbation, I feel it a particular pleasure that they are 
rendered to a society which I am happy to recognize as my 
alma mater, to the notice of whose eminent members I am 
already indebted for much gratification, and in whose occasional 
approval I have found a reason and a stimulus for continued 
exertion. I deem myself highly honored in having been con- 
sidered a subject for the exercise of a national courtesy, and in 



LONDON GEOGKAPHICAL SOCIETY. 333 

being made one of the thousand lints among the associations and 
cordial sympathies which unite our kindred nations. 
" With feelings of high respect and regard for yourself, 
" I am, sir, very respectfully, 

" Your obedient servant, 

" J. C. Fremont." 
" To Sir Roderick Murchison, 

"President of the Royal Geographical Society, 

" London." 



334 LUE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 



CHAPTER XII. 

C0KEE8P0NDENCE BETWEEN COL. FREMONT AND CAPTAIN 
CHARLES WILKES. 

While preparing his map and Geographical Memoir 
for publication, and a few days before its completion, 
Col. Fremont became accidentally involved in a public 
discussion with Capt. Wilkes, of the navy, which pos- 
sesses an interest now quite independent of the little 
incident out of which it originated. That incident ip 
stated in the following note addressed to the Editors of 
the National Intelligencer : 

LETTER FROM COL. BENTON.* 

" Stbbbt, May 14, 1848. 

" Gentlemen : We read in the National Intelligencer for 
May 9, as follows : 

" ' The Uuiled States sloop of war Portsmouth, Commander 
Montgomery, arrived in Boston, on Friday, from the Pacific 
Ocean. 

" ' Commander Montgomery states that the British frigate 
Herald, and the brig Pandora, are engaged in making a new 
survey of the gulf and coast of California. 

" ' The whale-ship Hope, of Providence (R. I.), was recently 
>ost on the coast in consequence of an error in the charts now in 
general use, which locate the coast and islands from Monterey to 

* See " National Intelligencer," May 15, 1848. 



COREESPONDENCE WITH CAPTAIN WILKES. 335 

Cape San Lucas, from fifteen to forty miles too far to the east- 
ward.' 

" On reading this notice in your paper, I have to say that the 
error in question has already been detected by Mr. Fremont 
and corrected in his map of Oregon and Upper California, now 
in course of preparation, and nearly ready to be laid before 
the Senate, by whom its construction was ordered. In his last 
expedition, Mr. Fremont made a series of astronomical observa- 
tions across the continent, terminating at Santa Cruz, near Anno 
Nuevo, the northwestern point of the Bay of Monterey. 
It was found, on laying down these positions on his map, that 
the west end of the line went beyond the coast, as given in Van- 
couver's charts (the basis of all in use), and that it projected 
two miles into the sea. His own map was immediately corrected 
accordingly, placing the coast and islands of Upper California 
ten miles further west. 

"Mr. Fremont's observations were made in the winter and 
spring of 1845 and 1846. They were calculated by Professor 
Hubbard, of the Washington City Observatory, during the past 
winter ; and were laid down on the map by Mr. Chas. Preuss, in 
February last. 

" This map, with a memoir to illustrate it, and the calculations 
of Prof. Hubbard, will be laid before the Senate in a few days. 

" Respectfully, gentlemen, your obedient servant, 

" Thomas H. Benton. 

To this note there shortly appeared the following 
reply : 



* 



LETTEK FKOM CAPTAIN WILKES. 

"Messrs. Gales & Seaton : On my return to the' city 
after a few weeks' absence, your paper of the 15th of May, con- 
taining some remarks on the errors existing in the charts of the 
northwest coast of California, by Col. Benton, was brought to 
my notice. Although I have no desire to detract from any one, 

* " National Intelligencer," June 8, 1848. 



SfG LIFE AND SEEVICE8 OF JOHN C. FBEMONT. 

yet I think it due to others, as well as to the United States 
Exploring Expedition, to place the following facts before the 
public respecting the errors which did exist in the longitude of 
this coast, the ''discovery'' of which is now claimed to have been 
first made, and the errors corrected, by Col. Fremont, through a 
series of astronomical observations across the continent. 

"Shortly after the publication of Vancouver's charts in 1*798, 
<rrors were suspected to exist in them (his points were deter- 
mined by lunar observations, and several chronometers, which 
latter performed but indifferently ; and from these his results 
were obtained), from a difference which was found between him 
and the Spanish surveying vessels, employed at the same time 
on the coast of California. The amount of error was aot, how- 
ever, truly ascertained until some years after this, when Captain 
Beechey, of H. B. M. ship, the Blossom, visited this coast in 
1826. His observations were confirmed by Captain Sir Edward 
Belcher, in H. B. M. surveying ship, the Sulphur, in 1835 ; and 
it was again confirmed by the United States Exploring Expedi- 
tion in 1841. 

" These corrections were all made on the general charts pub- 
lished by order of Congress in 1844, from the surveys and 
examinations of the Exploring Expedition, and have been in 
possession of our ships navigating the Pacific Ocean since that 
time. 

" By comparing dates, it will be perceived that these ' dis- 
coveries ' were known long since, and that the actual amount of 
error was ascertained some twenty years ago by both the English 
and French expeditions, and were published by our own govern- 
ment in the results of the Exploring Expedition, a year prior to 
the earliest date claimed by Col. Benton, as the time when the 
observations of Lieut. Col. Fremont were made. 

" With great respect, I am, yours, (fee, 

" Charles Wilkes. 

" Washington, June 6th, 1848." * 

• This letter waa accompanied with the following editorial note : 

"In a matter purely scientific, difference of opinion cannot be any 



COKKESPONDENCE WITH CAPTAEST WILKES. 337 

This letter brought CoL Fremont into the field, who 
conducted the remainder of the correspondence with 
Capt. Willvcs to its close. 

LETTER FROM COL. FREMOXT TO THE EDITORS.* 

Washington, June Bih, 1S43. 

" Messrs. Gales axd Seaton : In the absence of Col. Benton, 
and as the matter relates specially to myself, I desire to take 
some notice of the publication made in your paper of to-day by 
Captain Wilkes of the navy, concerning the rectification of an 
error on our western coast. 

" Capt. Wilkes could not have examined with much care the 
note of CoL Benton, which he undertakes to criticise, or he 
would have perceived that it is not against anything stated bj 
Col. Benton, or claimed for the observations made by myself, that 
his strictureo apply : but that his sole dispute, if he has any, is 
with the reports brought in by the sloop of war Portsmouth, 
Commander Montgomery, and only quoted in the note of Col. 
Benton. He must also have perceived, with a little more atten- 
tention, that the word ' discovery,' which he has introduced as 
a quotation italicized, does not exist in Col. Benton's note : and 
hence that his use of the word, as if copied from Col. Benton's 
note, is, in both instances unwarranted. 

" The plain facts in the matter in question are these : in my 
map published in 1845, accompanying the report of the first and 
second expeditions under my command, the line of the Pacific 

cause of quarrel, nor even of unkind feeling. We publish Capt. Willces's 
note as we did Mr. Benton's, without requiring any other authority than 
the name of the writer. 

" We cannot however, repress the obvious remark, that, as Col. Fre- 
mont was not in possession of the corrected charts spoken of by Captain 
Wilkes, he is still entitled to the merit of having, by means of his astro- 
nomical observations, discovered the error, though others also bad dis- 
covered the same error." 

*" National Intelligencer," June lOtb, 1848. 



338 LIFE AND SKKX'ICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

coast was laid down (and so stated) according to the survey of 
Vancouver. It was introduced merely to give a necessary coiu- 
pleteness to the map of my recounoissance, and without anv 
attempt at a rectification of errors, which I supposed to come 
properly within the i)rovince of the naval exploring expedition 
which had recently surveyed the coast. 

" In a recent expedition, having reference particularly to the 
geography on the Pacific coast, I was enabled to make ' a series 
of observations ' in that country, depending on two main posi- 
tions in the Sacramento valley, established by lunar culminations. 
These observations were made in 1845 and 1 84G ; they were cal- 
culated during the last winter by Professor Ilubbard of the Wash- 
ington Observatory. On laying down the positiojis thus ascer- 
tained on the map, they were found not to correspond with the 
coast line, as before pi'ojected. I was aware that there had 
been various surveys of the coast, and discrepancies between the 
observations of the diti'-rent navigators there. My observations 
agreed nearly with those of Capt, Beechey, and I immediately 
wi'ote to the cit}' of New York, to procure, if any such had been 
published, a chart of the coast, founded on the surveys of either 
Beechey or Belcher ; but was informed that there was nothing 
of the kind known there. 

"This being the case, I caused the line to be erased, and pro- 
jected further west, in conformity with my own observations. 
The fact of this alteration was confined to myself and to Mr. 
Preuss, who was engaged in drafting the map, and was not 
intended to be brought to the public notice in any more promi- 
nent way than by the publication of the map and observations, 
to go for what they are worth, whether by themselves or in com- 
parison. In the beginning of May, however, the arrival of the 
sloop of war Portsmouth, CommandLa" Montgomery, from the 
Pacific Ocean, was announced, with the information, brought by 
her, that the whale-ship Hope had lately been lost on that coast 
in consequence of this same error still exislinj ' on the charts in 
common use.' In connection with this, it was also stated that 



CORRESPONDENCE WITH CAPTAIN WILKES. 339 

two British naval vessels were engaged in a new survey of tlie 
coast. The correction made in my map (then nearly completed, 
and since laid before the Senate) was then mentioned, and it 
was thought proper, for public information, to make a statement 
of the fact of the correction, which was accordingly done in the 
note of Colonel Benton, certainly without the intent to detract 
from the labors of Captain Wilkes, or any one else, or to offer a 
remark that could have that effect. I had had the good fortune 
to find my observations in the Sacramento valley agree with 
those made in the same valley by Captain Belchei", but they 
differed with Captain Wilkes by about a third of a degree of 
longitude. These recurring discrepancies presented an addi- 
tional reasoii, as I judged, at a moment, when a new survey by 
foreign authority was going on, for a public notice being made 
of my observations, which I conceived I had a right to give with 
the rest, to be taken at their vakie. 

" The purpose of Captain Wilkes's note, as I understand it, ia 
to show that the error in the geography of the coast was known 
years ago, and is corrected on the charts published in 1844, by 
the exploration expedition under his command, and ' in the pos- 
session of our ships navigating the Pacific Ocean since that 
time.' This being admitted, it only brings Captain Wilkes in 
^conflict with the information given to the press by the officer of 
the sloop Portsmouth, as this was the whole authority on which 
it was supposed that the ' charts in common use ' were errone- 
ously projected, and that a note of correction of the error might 
be of interest and importance. 

" It does not appear, however, why Captain Wilkes should 
have felt called upon to open a controversy on this matter in 
any shape. Certainly, whatever merit the exploring expedition 
which he commanded may have entitled itself to in i\\Q publica- 
tion of corrections, it cannot claim any share in the making of 
them upon the coast in question (that of Upper California). In 
his card of to-day, Captain Wilkes refers to and professes to have 
aorreed with the observations of Sir Edward Belcher. But in 



3i0 LIFE AND SKRVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

point of faci, the discrepancy between the positions of Captain 
lielcher and of Captain Wilkes is so great, as to have left the 
true geography of the coast more unsettled than before. Capt. 
Belcher's observations, like those of Capt. Wilkes, were extended 
into the Sacramento valley. Point Victoria, at the junction of 
Feather Kiver with the Sacramento, is placed by Capt. Belcher in 
longitude 121° 35' 35" (Belcher, vol. 1, p. 121) ; as laid down 
by Captain Wilkes in his map, the same spot is about 30' or half 
a degree further west ; so that Captain Wilkes must say either 
that he is himself wrong by half a degree, or that Capt. Belcher 
is. This is a large error to make in the position of a navigable 
river, within two degrees of the coast parallel to it, affecting the 
position of the whole valley, five hundred miles in length, at the 
foot of the Sierra Nevada ; and necessarily impairs confidence in 
the position of the coast itself, with which it is connected. 

" Previous to the publication of my map in 1845, Capt. Wilkes 
was good enough to furnish me with the position established by 
himself at New Helvetia, as is acknowledged in my report of 
that date, and laid down upon the map then published. The 
results of my own observations, made during a recent journey to 
California, compelled me materially to change this position, remov- 
ing it twenty miles to the eastward. The observations connected 
with these at this point, extended through the Sacramento and San 
Joaquin\ valleys, which, with the dependent country, are accord- 
ingly placed upon the present map twenty miles further east. 
As already said, these positions agreed with Capt. Belcher, and, 
being thus supported by his authority, and aware that my obser- 
vations did not agree with those of Capt. Wilkes, I did not fur- 
ther consult his maps or charts. I find to-day, however, by his 
map of Upper California, accompanying the fifth volume .of his 
Narrative, that he has laid down the whole extent of the Sacra- 
mento River more westerly than the longitude in which he had 
placed New Helvetia, and differing consequently, by half of a 
degree from Capt. Belcher, whom he professes to concur with 
and cori'oborate. 



L 



CORRESPONDENCE WITH CAPTAIN WILKES. 34:1 

"It is true that the line of the coast appears to have been laid 
clown by Capt. Wilkes in the positions which the observations 
of Capt. Beechey and Capt. Belcher would assign to it.- But it 
is very strange that, if he agreed with those officers so exactly 
on the coast, he should, in the extension of his surveys through 
the short space of a degree, differ with them by half a degree of 
longitude. Had Capt. "Wilkes referred the coast, by the true 
difierence in longitude, to liis observations in the Sacramento 
valley, it w'ould have been thrown as much too far west as Van- 
couver had placed it too far east. It would seem, then, that 
Capt. Wilkes's observations do not form a connected ' series ' 
•wliicb depend on each other, and tbat they do not corroborate 
or confirm previous surveys, except insomuch as they copy 
them. 

" I infer from Capt. Wilkes's card, that neither Capt. Bee- 
chey nor Capt. Belcher's surveys caused, the proper corrections 
to be made in the charts of the coasts, and that his publications 
of 1844 were the first to give the benefit of those older surveys 
to the seamen of the Pacific. In that case the cause must have 
been that the true position of the coast was considered still un- 
certain at the hydrographic office in London : and this is the 
more probable from the fact that a new survey was being made 
last November. That Capt. Wilkes added anything he does not 
pretend, and that our seamen need something more accurate 
than they have, is shown by the recent fate of the ship Hope, 
and the report of her loss brought in by a naval vessel, whose 
officers may be supposed to know what are the charts most in 
use and most authentic. 

" In conclusion, I would state, that the observations which I 
have made, and on which the positions I have adopted dej^end, 
will be published, in connection with a geographical memoir of 
California, laid before the Senate a few days ago ; and since 
Capt. Wilkes has thought proper to raise a controversy with me, 
I hope he will see the propriety of also publishing the observa- 
tions, which, with his large equipment of insti'uments, he was so 



34:2 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

well prep^aecl to make with accuracy. I have not learned 
that any such have been published, and I have had not the lei- 
sure to read through his work. 

" J. C. Fremont." 

LETTER FROM CAPTAIN WILKES TO THE EDITORS.* 

" Gentlemen : With much pleasure I avail myself of the call 
of Lieut. Col. Fremont to give the public the required information 
in relation to the observations made by the Exploration Expedi- 
tion on the coast of California. It has been my constant desh-e 
to publish the astronomical and hydrographical results ever since 
the return of the Exploration Expedition, but from circumstances 
beyond my control the publication has been and will be delayed 
for some time. 

" As Lieut. Col. Fremont wishes the public to know M'hy I con- 
troverted the first detection of the error in the longitude of the 
coast of California, I will state that it arose from my desire to do 
justice to others and ourselves on an interesting point of geogra- 
phical history, deemed of such high importance by Col. Benton 
as to cause him to claim, through the columns of your journal, 
that the merit of its detection was due to the labors of Col. 
Fremont, and also from a sense of duty to the public to state 
what I knew had been previously done by others and ourselves. 
I am well satisfied the public will deem me justified in doing so, 
without impugning my motives. 

" With reference to the longitudes on the northwest coast 
determined by the Exploring Expedition, the limits of your 
whole paper would not more than suffice to give the details, I sliall 
therefore content myself with giving a general outline of the 
manner in which the duty was performed, so as to be intelligible 
to every one, and refer to the actual results when they are 
published. 

" Two observations were established, one at Nisqually, in 

* National Intelligencer, Juue l-4th, 1848. 



COKRESPONDENCE WITH CAPTAIN WILKES. 343 

Puget Sound, Oregon Territory, in latitude 47^, cand the other at 
Sausahto, on the north side of the entrance in the bay of San 
Francisco, California, in 37° 51' 00". At these positions scenes 
of nioon-culniinating stars, with both limbs of the moon, were 
taken, and the longitude deduced from intervals observed by 
Wui. Cranch Bond, Esq., at the Observatory, Cambridge, Massa- 
chusette ; by Lieut. Gillis, of the Navy, at Washington ; and 
fi-om those also at Greenwich, both calculated in the Nautical 
Almanac and observed. The first position, Nisqually, was by 46 
moon-culminating stars, and the second, Sausalito, by 68. 
These two points thus astronomically determined, were also 
connected by meridian distances through our chronometers, and. 
found to correspond satisfactorily. All the intermediate points 
between these two latitudes have been referred to one or the 
other, and most to both, through the agency of our chronometers. 
The longitude i-esulting from the mean of the 68 moon-culmi- 
nating stars at Sausalito places it in 122° 26' 06" 221'". 

" The survey of the river Sacramento was intrusted to able 
"officers, and seven boats, including the launch, with provisions, 
were employed on this duty. To the untiring exertions and zeal 
of the party we are indebted for the accurate survey of the river, 
from its mouth at San Pablo, to the head of navigation for 
boats. 

" The survey was made by triangulation until the river become 
too narrow to work by that method ; above that it was accom- 
plished by azimuths, and distances by sound. Four stations 
were occupied for longtitude and latitude, the former being 
determined by chronometers through equal altitudes of the sun, 
and the latter by circum-meridian observations and by polaris. 
These positions have been compared with the surveys and proved 
satisfactory. The chronometer used was No. 972, Arnold and 
Dent, an excellent instrument. It was compared with the 
standard time at the Observatory before leaving, and after their 
return, a period of eighteen days ; and its rate (which w;is small) 
determined during that interval by the Observatory time. The 



3Jr4 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JO UN C. FREMONT. 

four positions I refer to above wei*e Karguines Straits, Capt. 
Sutter's Lauding, Feather River, and the Fish weir at the head of 
navigation for canoes, and the resulting longitudes from applying 
the meridian distances to that of Sausalito Observatory, were as 
follows: Karguine's camp, 122° 10' 58" 95'"; Capt. Sutter's 
landing, 121° 22' 23" 55'" ; Feather river, 121° 29' 02" pO'" ; 
Fish weir, 121° 48' 38" 25'". 

" The original chart of the river was plotted during the 
progress of the survey on a large scale, and is 27 feet in length. 
This I had the pleasure of showing to Col. Benton, Capt. 
Fremont (just after liis return from his second trip), and two or 
three other gentlemen, who called at my house to see it. This 
chart has been reduced, and is now engraved on a sufficiently 
large scale to show all the windino-s of the river. 

"In February, 1845, Capt. Fremont wrote me a letter request- 
ing I would give him the positions I had assigned Fort Vancou- 
ver, and Capt. Sutter's Fort. The letter was forwarded to me at 
Philadelphia, where I Avas then engaged reading the proofs of 
my Narrative. The longitude of Fort Vancouver was 122° 39' 
34" 6"'W., and Capt. Sutter's Fort 121° 40' 05"— the same as 
given in the Narrative, and which was then believed to be cor- 
rect. Subsequent calculations proved it to be erroneous. When 
this was discovered, one of the officers (St. Eld), who was on 
very intimate terms with Capt. Fremont, asked me if he was at 
liberty to communicate to Col. Fremont, and explain to him how 
it had occurred. To this I of course assented, and have since 
presumed it had been done, though I have no further knowledge 
of the fact. 

" The above longitude of Feather Eiver differs from that given 
by Belcher, some five or six minutes, and not as stated by Col. 
Fremont, some thirty minutes. In respect to the observations 
made on the Sacramento, by the able officers intrusted with that 
duty, I am satisfied that every confidence is to be placed in them, 
both for longitude and latitude. 

" I must here take exception to Col. Fremont's comparing and 



COKEESPONDENCE WITH CAPTAIN "WILKES 34:5 

measuring our longitudes from a small map eleven inches by 
eight, covering seventeen degrees of longitude. 

" Exception is also to be taken to his treating the minor points 
of our surveys as though they were principal ones, and gov- 
erned our coast line ; this cannot be permitted ; he must well 
kno^w that all points of longitude in a survey are derived from 
and referred to that occupied as an observatory, and that tbere 
is no other true course, and none other can with fairness be 
adopted in comparing the longitude of different surveys. 

" Capt. Beechey gives his longitude of Yerba Biiena Cove from 
the result of twenty-two moon-culminating stars, as 122° 27' 
23" west. (See his Appendix, page 6GY, quarto, London). It will 
be seen that this differs from ours, and with all due deference to 
so able an observer, I have not the slightest doubt but that Capt. 
Beechey himself would, in weighing the testimony of the two, 
decide that the preference was to bo given to our longitude, the 
result of sixty-eight culminations. Although we do not agree 
with Capt. Beechey, yet I consider we confirm his longitudes. 

"An inference may be drawn from a part of the remarks of 
Col. Fremont that the Exploration Expedition had depended for 
its results upon others. I have to inform him as well as others 
(to make use of a common expression), that the Expedition, 
wherever it did go, went on its oion hook. 

" Having thus considered the operations of this Exploring 
Expedition, let us return to the point at issue before the public. 
Capt. Beechey established his observatory in November, 1827, 
near the fort at Monterey, from which can be seen Santa ■ 
Cruz, near Anno Nuevo, the northwestern point of the bay 
of Monterey, where Col. Benton claims that Lieut. Col. 
Fremont made the observations which detected the error in the 
coast-line of California. Capt. Beechey has given the longitude 
as 122° 51' 46", obtained from seven moon-culminating stars. 
(See Appendix, page 668). Lieut. Col. Fremont admits that he 
agrees with Capt. Beechey in his longitudes, and it is, therefore, 
to be presumed that it is with the longitude of Monterey, or 



34:6 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FKEMONT. 

that of Yerba Buena Cove, whicli have been connected by 
Beecliy, and found to correspond. If he had a knowledge of 
these observations, the public must be satisfied that Col. Benton 
was not authorized to claim the detection of an error for Lieut. 
Col. Fremont in the longitude of the coast of California that 
had been previously known to him. The surveys reported to be 
in prosecution by Commander Montgomery, of the Portsmouth, 
relate no doubt to the Gulf of California and its coast, and not 
to the Bacific coast of California, betwfeen Monterey and Cape 
St. Lucas. 

" This part of the coast is well known, and there are ample 
materials for its delineation in the possession of the British 
Admiralty. It is usual to account for the loss of a ship by im- 
puting errors to charts. No vessel ought to encounter wreck on 
a coast, except through sti'ess of weather ; it might happen on an 
insulated reef, rock, or islet ; but on a coast, in fiiir weather, it 
must result either from ignorance or culpable neglect. 

" As you, Messrs. Editors, truly observe, ' this discussion is a 
matter purely scientific ; difference of opinion cannot be any 
cause of quarrel, not even of unkind feeling.' I therefore trust, 
having felt none myself, I have been successful in avoiding giv- 
ing cause for any to others. 

" I am, very respectfully your obedient servant, 

" Charles Wilkes. 

" Washington, June 12, 1849." 

LETTER FROM COLONEL FREMONT TO THE EDITORS.* 

" Messrs. Gales and Seaton : I should not deem it neces- 
sary to trouble you or your readers with any further remarks on 
the subject on wdiich Captain Wilkes has thought proper to 
invite a controversy with me, were it not for the very exti'aor- 
dinary position taken in his letter this morning, and which goes 
to the extent, in efiect, of imputing unfairness in ftiy references 

* National Intdligencer, June IG, 18-18. 



CORRESPONDENCE WITH CAPTAIN WILKK3. 31:7 

to his observations, because I tested ibem by the map and book.s 
which he has published, and not to the results of certain ' sub- 
sequent calculations,' which are now for the first time made 
public. 

" Not long after Captain Wilkes had been polite enough to 
furnish ir.e, as stated in my former letter, with the position he 
had established for New Helvetia, I left the country on my 
third expedition ; and neither before my departure nor at any 
time until now, in the 'Intelligencer' of this morning, did I ever 
learn that Captain Wilkes had discovered the erroneousness of 
that position, nor do I now find that there are any errata or 
other memoranda in his book by which the correction is indi- 
cated ; and I had not the power of clairvoyance to discover 
those ' subsequent calculations ' that see'ii to have been mean- 
time secure in his bureau. Captain Wilkes knew the use I 
was to make of the position with which he furnished me, and if, 
in fact, he made the discovery he now announces at the time he 
states, while I waa still here, and my report and map open to 
correction, the indifference w'hich, according to his own showing, 
he manifested, was neither more nor less than willfully to per- 
mit (or rather cause) the further propagation of error on his 
authority. I had applied to Captain Wilkes, in a Avritten com- 
munication, for positions which would enable me to connect my 
reconnoissance across the country with his surveys. His reply 
and the positions he furnished me came in the same shape I 
received them and gave them to the public in full confidence ; 
and I must confess my surprise — not to use a stronger term — 
now to learn that, on discovering that he had led me into so 
important an error, he had not at onc9 given me the proper 
correction in the most authentic form. 

" Undoubtedly the positions noLO set down by Captain Wilkes 
for the Sacramento valley agree closely with the fact ; but ho 
f)-ives them now for the first time, and it is most unwarrantable, 
his assertion that it was with reference to these new positions 
that I had said he differed half a degree of longitude from 



348 LITJ? AND SERVICES OF JOnN C. FREMONT. 

Captain Belcher. I had never heard of these new positions, 
and could not have spoken of them. It was with reference to 
Captain Wilkes's published works, which have now been before 
the public uncorrected for the space of three years, that I said 
and repeat that his positions differ half a degree from those of 
Captain Belcher, whom he assumes, in his lettei' of Thursday 
last, to agree with and corroborate. 

" I wish it to be borne in mind that it was not in an invidious 
spirit, or for any purpose of attack, that I pointed out this 
remarkable discrepancy. Captain Wilkes claimed in his note to 
have published a correct delineation of the western coast prior 
to any observations which I had made there ; and my only 
object was to show why, if such were the fact, I was not aware 
of it. The reason was this, that on comparing the position he 
had given me in the Sacramento valley with my own observa- 
tions, I perceived that there was the wide difference of twenty 
miles of longitude between us, and I supposed that his observa- 
tions would agree with each other, and of course the same dis- 
agreement between his positions and mine would exist on the 
coast. I did not know that he had published maps or charts 
on other surveys than his own, and hence did not further con- 
sult his labors. When, however, he raised this controversy, 
and referred in his note to Captain Belcher's observations as 
being in agreement with his, I found it proper to consult his 
published works, and to show, in self defence, that in the dis- 
crepancy between us he was not thus supported by Captaia 
Belcher, but differed widely from him. 

" If Captain Wilkes intends, by taking exception to my refer- 
ence to his map, published with the fifth volume of his Narrative, 
to say that his map is incorrect and of no authority, then I 
admit it would be improper to use it against him hereafter. 
But this disavowal comes too late to affect anything that has 
gone before ; and, moreover, if the map is to be thus discarded, 
and also the positions given in the text, now, after a lapse of 
three years , to be erased and different ones substituted, in what 



COEKESPONDENCE WITH CAPTAIN WILKES. 349 

part of the eight raagniScent volumes can we be certain that 
' subsequent calculations ' have not detected inaccuracies here- 
after to be exhibited ? It is idle to intimate that in a map, on 
the scale of that given in the narrative of Captain Wilkes 
(volume 5, beginning of chapter 5), and executed with so 
much precision and neatness, with the meridians and parallels 
of latitude drawn at distances of single degrees, discrepancies in 
position of such an extent as twenty to thirty minutes, cannot pro- 
perly be examined. For what purpose are the lines of longitude and 
latitude drawn upon the map at all, if the position of places and 
objects given are not to be measured and ascertained by the.m ? 
If the diflerence in question were slight, no notice would have 
been taken of it ; but this broad discrepancy of half a degree is 
as palpable and as open to criticism as if the map which shows 
it were twenty times its actual scale ; and this more especially 
when it relates to a section which was the object of a particular, 
extended, and careful survey, as Captain Wilkes informs us was 
the case with the river Sacramento, and embraces not an isolated 
point but the whole of that section. 

" But Captain Wilkes further takes exception, and ' cannot 
permit' that I shall 'treat the minor points of his survey as 
principal ones.' Nor have I done so ; but surely there ought to 
be some degree of accordance between the minor points and 
the principal ones, and ^if a large error be found in the minor 
a corresponding one will be found in the principal. Besides 
this is not the error of a single ' minor point,' but a series of 
errors running through the observations. made in some hundreds 
of miles. And, furthermore, Captain Wilkes informs us in his 
narrative, that a prominent point in the Sacramento valley — the 
Prairie Buttes (isolated mountains) — formed * one of the con- " 
necting links' between two surveying parties of his expedition, 
one coming from the north, the other from the south, and 
' served to verifiy their respective observations.' Surely it was 
fair to conclude that the observations thus ' connected ' and 
' verified,' whether made at minor points or principal ones, were 



r350 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOUN C. FKEMONT. 

intended to be taken for correct, and the positions laid down 
accordingly. Again, these Buttes, ' particuLirly described ' in 
tlie narrative, and thus forming a ' connecting link ' and point 
of ' verification ' for the surveys of the expedition, are con- 
spicuously laid down by Captain Wilkes on his map, with the 
meridian of 122° passing through them. Now, does Captain 
Wilkes wish us to believe that all this stands for nothing ? 
Does he mean to intimate that positions thus noted by him, and 
conspicuously brought forward in the book and on the map, are 
not to be criticised because they are minor, not principal parts 
in the surveys ? 

"Considered with relation to the position assigned to the 
Sacramento River, the Buties are rightly placed on the map ; but 
'connecting link' and point of ' verification 'as they are, they 
require, along with the whole extent of the river, to be removed 
many miles (in no part less than twenty) further east, in order to 
correspond with their true longitude. The errors, therefore, 
cannot be laid to the execution of the map, which is thus shown 
to be drawn with care, and to agree with itself. It will also 
be noted that, as two surveys were here ' connected ' and ' veri- 
fied ' — if, in fact, the errors which run through the line, were 
the result, as we are now informed, of wrong ' calculations,' 
instead of wrong observation, they involved a most remarkable 
series of blunders, embracing the surveys of the parties both from 
the north and south. 

" I will copy here the longitude given by Captain Wilkes in 
his book, contrasted with those he now, for the first time, offers as 
from ' subsequent calculations.' In his book (quarto edition), he 
places New Helvetia in longitude 121° 40' 05" ; in his letter of 
to-day he gives 121° 22' 23" 55'" as the longitude of a point, 
(Sutter's landing) near two miles west of New Helvetia. The 
' Fish River, at the head of navigation' he gives in his book at 
122° 12' 17", his present correction brings it 121° 48' 38" 25'". 
The mouth of Feather River I do not find noted in his book ; in 
iiis new correction he assigns it 121° 29' 02" 60'" — on his map 



COEEESPONDENCE WITH CAPTAIN WILKES. 351 

it ia placed some minutes west of 122°. A relative position 
giveii to the coast, I repeat, would have thrown it as much too 
far wfcst as Vancouver has placed it too far east. 

" I will not, however, here question Captain Wilkes's observa- 
tions on the coast, or further inquire whether they ought to be 
said to copy or corioborate those of Captain Beechey ; neither 
will I question that the longitude now given by Captain Wilkes 
for his positions in the Sacramento valley are the true results of 
his observations there, corrected by " subsequent calculations ;" 
but I will say that, after suppressing the discovery of the errors 
he now announces for a space of three years, he has lost any 
right to plead them for any purpose ; least of all, for the purpose 
of finding fault with those who have innocently taken his book 
and map for authentic records. I must, moreover, be allowed 
to inquire what degree of credit can further attach to a work 
which, got ready with four year's preparation, its author, three 
years subsequent to its publication, thus comes forward to 
discredit? 

" J. C. Fremont. 

" Washisgton, June Uth, 1S4S." 

LETTER IT.OM CAPTAIN WILKES TO THE EDITORS.* 

" Gentlemen : It is not my intention to trespass upon your 
columns, or to weary the patience of your readers ; but I feel 
constrained to offer a few words in reply to Lieut. Col. Fremont's 
article in your paper of this morning. 

" As the object which was at issue before the public is not 
touched upon in Lieut. Col. Fremont's last article, I consider it 
therefore as ended, and that the testimony that I have adduced 
of Capt. Beechey's observations at Monterey and Yerba Buena 
are entirely satisfactory to show that Col. Benton was not 
authorized to claim for Lieut. Col. Fremont the detection of the 
error in the longitude of the coast of California. 
* National IntelUcencer, June 19th, 1848. 



352 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN 0. FREMONT. 

" Lieut. Col. Fremont's absence from the country on arduous 
duty may perhaps be a sufficient apology for his being uninform- 
ed of what has been done or published during the time, but I do 
not think he can be held justified for making against me so 
sweeping a charge as he has done, of withholding and suppress- 
ing corrections from the public, when a slight examination or 
some little inquiry, would have satisfied him he was in error 
especially as it was a fact that the desire to meet his inquiries 
and oblige was in part the cause of the errors of the longitude 
he makes mention of on a small maj), the corrections of which 
errors were made a short time afterwards, and I fully believed 
had been furnished by Lieut. Col. Fremont by Lieut. Eld, as 
stated in my last communication. 

" Respectfully, yours, &c., 

"Charles Wilkes. 
*'June Uih, 1848." 

LETTER FKOM COL. FREMONT TO THE EDITORS.* 

"Messrs. Gales & Seaton : I must confess my inability to 
understand what Capt. Wilkes intends "to signify, in his letter of 
yesterday, by stating that his desire to oblige me was one cause 
of the errors in the map of California. I do not perceive what 
connection I had with those mistakes, other than to have been 
grossly misled by placing confidence in the positions which he 
furnished me. 

" Apart from those I never saw any observations or calculations 
of Capt. Wilkes, and I never saw his publications till since the 
beginning of the present correspondence. 

" If he means that in his haste to furnish me with the positions 
I had requested, the erroneous calculations were made, to which 
ho now attributes his mistaken longitudes, I answer that his 
expedition had then been nearly four years returned, his publica- 
tions were nearly through the press, and it is extraordinary if his 
* National Intelligencer, June 20th, 1848. 



CORRESPONDENCE WITH CAPTAIN WILKES. 353 

calculations had not been made, and 'even the identical map 
(which he would thus seem disposed to hold me responsible for the 
blunders of) both drawn and engraved. Moiever, I had under- 
stood from Capt. Wilkes's first letter that his charts had been 
published the year previous to my application to him, and it 
would seem that his positions ought to have been calculated pre- 
vious to the making of his charts. The truth is Capt. Wilkes led 
me into error. According to his present showing, he discovered 
very soon after that he had done so. I must be permitted to 
believe that had his desire to oblige me been so strong as is now 
intimated, he would have taken the trouble to apprise me of his 
mistake, which he never did. I discovered the error of the posi- 
tion, he had given me in the Sacramento valley from observations 
made during my late tour. I did not suspect, and had no reason 
to suspect, that he had made any subsequent rectification, and 
hence I was led into the second error (if it be an error) of 
supposing the coast was still erroneously laid down. I ascertain- 
ed, as far as I was able to make inquiry, that no chart of the 
coast had been issued by Beechey or Belcher ; I knew that Capt. 
Wilkes was the last surveyor there ; I knew that my observations 
differed from what he had furnished me as his by about twenty 
miles, in the Sacramento valley, and took it for granted that 
forty miles further west the same disagreement would exist ; and 
so corrected the outline of my map according to my own obser- 
vations. The report shortly after brought in by one of our public 
vessels of the Avreck of a ship on the coast in consequence of 
error in the charts in common use, it was considered] good reason 
for making known that a different projection of the coast would 
appear on the forthcoming map. If, then, there was any error 
in this, or in the manner of its announcement, it is attributable 
entirely to the wrong information given me by Capt. Wilkes, 
and his failure to inform me of the fact, if he afterwards discover- 
ed the error he had led me into, and which I had published on 
his authority ; for I could not be expected to look to his publica- 
tions for a correct delineation of the coast, when I knew that 
forty miles off he had made so large an error. 



354: LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOUN C. FKEMONT. 

" But it is clear that, if Captain AVilkes informs us, he has 
made a publication of charts which give the necessary correction 
of the coast, he must have abandoned his own survey for the 
pui'pose, and proceeded entirely by the observations of others, lie 
published his charts, according to his note of the Gth instant, 
inviting this controversy, 'in 1844.' Now, it was in the win- 
ter of 1844-5, that he furnished me the positions which, accord- 
ing to his own showing, are so erroneous ; and, still later, his 
own books contain .the same and many corresponding errors. 
His positions, Capt. Wilkes informs us, were determined. by the 
establishment of two observations — one at Nisqually, in Puget's 
Sound (the longitude of which, nevertheless, he does not furnish 
us with), and the other Sausalito, at the north side of the 
entrance to the Bay of San Francisco — and the reference of all 
the intermediate points to one or the other, and most of them to 
both of these main positions. Now, I Avill venture to' say that 
all these ' intermediate points,' thus ' referred,' and as appears 
by the narrative, ' connected' and ' verified,' could not contain a 
common error, as they do, both in the map and text of Captain 
Wilkes's book, without a like error in the main positions. Hence 
if Capt. Wilkes published a correction of the coast, in chart, 
1844, he must have done it on the labors of others; for he 
does not pretend to have discovered the erroneousness of his 
own calculations till after the issuing of his book in 1845. 

" I apprehend, Messrs, Editors, that, notwithstanding the charts 
by Capt, Wilkes, and the labors of the British officers, whom he 
quotes and seems to have copied, when the whole truth comes 
to be investigated, it will be found that the proper position of 
the coast is not much better ascertained now than it was near 
sixty years ago. My occupation has been that of reconnoissanco 
and survey inland, and my attention had not been directed to 
th? state of the surveys on the coast beyojid the very narrow 
inquiry — when I found my observations to be at variance with 
tliose of Vancouver, and still more so with those of Capt. 
Wilkes — whether Beechey or Belcher had published a cor- 
rected chart. Since the commencement of this correspondence. 



COKKESPONDENCE WITH CAPTAIN WILKES. 355 

however, I have given the subject some more examination. The 
Spanish navigator, Malaspina, to the merits of whom Humboldt 
bears such honorable testimonj-, and whose subsequent misfor- 
tunes and political persecution gave a peculiar interest to such 
portion of his labors as they did not destroy, made a survey of 
this coast in 1791, Ilis longitudes, as far as I have -been able 
to examine them, were nearly correct. Vancouver followed 
immediately after, and his surveys, disagreed with Malaspina's, 
threw the coast from a third to a half degree too for east ; sub- 
sequent surveys, as far as they have made any change, are but 
little more than restoring the positions of Malaspina. 

" As for Capt. Wilkes's renewed objection to having his ' small 
map,' taken for a test, I have to remark, that corresponding 
errors with those in his ' small map,' appear in his larger map 
of Oregon, and in the text of his narrative, and I am not 
acquainted with any other publications he has made. If he 
objects to having it said that he has suppressed or withheld 
his corrections, surely he ought to point where and when he 
has made them public. 

" I wish again to make the remark that this controversy is not 
of my seeking. When I discovered the great erroneousness of 
the positions Capt. Wilkes had given me, I contented myself by 
quietly making the corrections on my map; I had received them 
in good faith as the result of his observations, and supposed them 
to be given the same v/ay, and should have studiously avoided, 
therefore any mention of the descrepancy. Had I known, how- 
evei', what he now informs us of, that he had shortly afterwards 
found those positions to be incorrect, and yet left me in ignor- 
ance of the rectification, to make an erroneous publication, I 
should not have been so silent. 

" I stated in my first letter that I did not see why Captain 
Wilkes had thought himself called on to provoke this contro- 
versy, since whatever his merits in the publication of corrections 
on the coast of California, he could not claim any share in the 
waking them. I am now still more at a loss to know why he 



356 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

felt concerned in the matter, for it has become still more plain 
that he could not have supposed himself in any way wronged. 
His surveys not only do not make any corrections on the coast 
of California, but I feel warranted in saying that his entire 
surveys in Oregon and California, as far as they follow his own 
observations, are erroneously laid down in his published works. 

" J. C. Fremont 

" Washington, Jime20th,\SiS." 



FOURTH EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 357 



CHAPTEK Xm. 

FOURTH EXPP:DITI0N ENCAMPED IN KANSAS ^TERRIBLE JOUR- 
NEY THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS FRIGHTFUL SNOW STORM — • 

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY MULES FROZEN TO DEATH IN 

ONE NIGHT STARVATION OF HIS COMRADES MEETS AN 

UNEXPECTED FRIEND REACHES THE RANCHE OF KIT CAR- 
SON THRILLING LETTER TO HIS WIFE ^ADVENTURE WITH 

NAVAHOES INDIANS. 

In October, 1848, Fremont sat out upon his fourth ex- 
pedition. But he went now at his own expense and not 
at the expense of the government ; as an emigrant in 
quest of a home in the new State which he had emanci- 
pated, and not as an officer under orders. He went to 
prepare for the reception of his family, who were to join 
him in the spring, and he chose the winter for the journey 
as the season best adapted to make him acquainted with 
several of the most serious difficuhies to be encountered 
in the construction of a highway to the Pacific, an enter- 
prise of which he never lost sight in any of his phms for 
the future. He sat out on the 19th of October, and deter- 
mined to make the line of his route along the head of the 
Rio Grande ; first, because that route had never yet been 
explored, and secondh'", because he had been informed 
by the mountaineers that there was a very practicable 



358 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C, FREMONT. 

pass tliroiigli tlie Mountains at the head of that river. 
This route took him through the country of the Utahs, 
Apaches, Navahoes, Camanches, Kioways, and other 
savage tribes of Lidians, then all at war with the United 
States. To contend with the enemies and physical dan- 
gers of the inhospitable region through which he was to 
pass, he had selected thirty-three of his old companions, 
all provided with good rifles, and one hundred and 
twenty of the best mules he could find. These, with an 
experience in the kind of life to which they were to be 
exposed, wiLhout a parallel, and with a courage never 
surpassed, constituted his outfit and his securit3^ Their 
preparations for this expedition were mostl}^ made at 
a small government post just over the borders of 
Missouri in Kansas. Mrs. Fremont attended him as 
far as this point, and remained with him for the five 
or six weeks that he w^as occupied with his prepara- 
tions; spending her days at his camp and her nights 
at the, more comfortable quarters hospitably assigned 
to her and her husband by Major Cummins, a venerable 
Indian agent who had lived upon the frontier for twenty 
or thirty years. Here, in the depths of this vast wilder- 
ness, far beyond even the shadows of advancing civili- 
zation. Col. Fremont and his little party made their first 
acquaintance with a country which only seven years 
afterwards became the theatre of events destined to 
change the whole plan of his life ; — to call him. like 
Washington, from his surveying, to become the national 
champion of freedom and civilization. 

Of the progress and results of this expedition, fortu- 
nate as well as disastrous, Col. Fremont has as yet pub- 
lished no complete report. A sufliciently minute ac- 
count of it, however, for our present purpose may be 



FOUKTH EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 359 

gathered from liis private correspondence dniing the 
jonrncy, and from tlie sketch just published by Colonel 
Benton. 

The following letter dated from Bent's Fort shows 
what he had accomplished up to that point. 

LETTER FROM COL. FREMONT TO COL. BENTON. 

" Camp at Bent's Fort, IXov. 17, lSi9. 

"My Dear Sir : We have met Avith very reusorable succcsa 
and some good results this first long step upon our journey. In 
order to avoid the chance of snow-storms upon the more ex- 
posed Arkansas road, I followed up the line of the Southei'n 
Kansas (the true Kansas River) and so f^ir added something to 
geography. For a distance of 400 miles our route led through 
a country aflbrding abundant timber, gan:te, and excellent grass. 
We find that the Valley of the Kansas affords by far the most 
eligible approach to the Mountains. The whole valley soil is 
of very superior quality, well timbered, abundant grasses, and 
tlie route very direct. This line would afford continuous and 
good settlements certainly for 400 miles, and is therefore worthy 
of consideration in any plan of approach to the Mountains. We 
found our friend. Major Fitzpatrick, in the full exercise of his 
functions at a point about thirt}'' miles below this, in what is 
called the ' Big Tinaber,' and surrounded by about 600 lodges 
of Tlifterent nations, Apaches, Camanches, Kiowaj^s, and Arapa- 
hoes. Be is a most admirable agent, entirely educated for such 
a post, and possessing the ability and courage necessai-y to make 
his education available. He has succeeded in drawing out from 
among the Camanches tlie whole Kioway nation, with the excep- 
tion of six lodges, and brought. over among them a considerable 
number of lodges of the Apaches and Camanches. When wo 
arrived he was holding a talk with them, making a feast and 
giving them a few presents. We found them all on their good 
behavior, and were treated in the most friendly manner ; were 



3G0 LIFE AND SICRVICES OF JOUX C. FREMONT. 

neither annoyed by them, nor had anything stolen from us. I 
hope you will be able to give him some support. He will be 
able to save lives and money for the government, and knowing 
how difficult this Indian question may become, I am particular 
in bringing Fitzpatrick's operations to your notice. In a few 
years he might have them all farming here on the Arkau- 
gas. 

" Both Indians and whites here report the snow to be deeper 
in the mountains than has for a long time been known so early 
in th'e season, and they predict a severe winter. This morning 
for the first time, the mountains showed themselves, covered with 
snow, as well as the country around us, for it snowed steadily the 
greater part of yesterday and the night before. Still, I am in 
nowise discouraged by the prospectj and believe that we shall 
succeed in forcing our way across. We will ascend the Del 
Norte to its head, descend on to the Colorado, and so across the 
WahsatcL mountains and the basin country somewhere near the 
37th parallel, reaching the settled parts of California, near 
Monterey. There is, I think, a pass in the Sierra Nevada 
between the 37th and 38th, which I wish to examine. The 
party is in good spirits and good health ; we have" a small store 
of provisions for hard times, and our insti'uments, barometer 
included, all in good order. We are always up an hour or two 
before light, and the breakfasts are all over, and the camp pre- 
paring to move, before sunrise. This breakfasting before day 
light, with the thermometer ranging from 12° to 18°, is a some- 
what startling change from the pleasant breakfast-table in "your 
stove-warmed house. I think that I shall never cross the con- 
tinent again, except at Panama. I do not feel the pleasure that 
[ used to have in those labors, as they remain inseparably con- 
nected with painful circumstances, due mostly to them. It needs 
Ktiong incitements to undergo the hardships and self-denial of 
this kind of life, and as I find I have these no longer, I will drop 
into a quiet life. Should we have reasonable success, we shall 
be in California early in January, say about the 8th, where I 



FODKTH EXP1.0RING EXPEDITION. 361 

shall expect to hear from all by the dteamer. Referring jou for 
other details to Jessie, to whom I have written at length, 
" I remain, most affectionately yours, 

"J. C. Fremont." 

"Arrived at Pueblos on the Upper Arkansas, the last of 
November," says Col. Benton,* " at the base of the first sierra to 
be crossed, luminous with snow, and stern in their dominating 
look, he dismounted, his whole company took to their feet, and 
wading waist deep in the vast unbroken snow-field, arrived on 
the other side in the beautiful valley of San Luis ; but still on 
the eastern side of the great mountain chain which divide the 
waters which ran east and west to the rising and setting sun. 
At the head of that valley was the Pass, described to him by 
the old hunters. With his glasses he could see the depression 
in the mountain which marked its place. He had taken a local 
guide from the Pueblo San Carlos to lead him to that Pass. But 
this precaution for safety was the passport to disaster. He was 
behind, with his faithful draughtsman, Preuss, when he saw his 
guide leading the company towards a mass of mountains to the 
left ; he rode up and stopped them, remonstrated with the guide 
for two hours, and then yielded to his positive assertion that the 
pass was there. The company entered a tortuous gorge, follow- 
ing a valley through which ran a head stream of the great river 
Del Norte. Finally they came to where the ascent was to begin, 
and the summit range crossed. The snow was deep, the cold 
intense, the acclivity steep, and the huge rocks projecting. The 
ascent was commenced in the morning, struggled with during 
the day, an elevation reached at which vegetation (wood) ceased, 
and the summit in view, when, buried in snow, exhausted with 
fatigue, freezing with cold, and incapable of further exertion, the 
order was given to fall back to the line of vegetation, were wood 
would afibrd a fire and shelter them for the night. With greni 
care the animals were saved from freezing, and at the first 

* Thirty Years View, vol. ii. p. 719. 



363 LITE ANI) SERVICES OF JOHN C. FEEMONT. 

dawn of day the camp, after a daybreak breakfast, weje in 
motion for the ascent. Precautions had been taken to make it 
more practicable. Mauls, prepared during the night, were 
carried by the foremost division to beat down a road in the 
snow. Men went forward by relieves. Mauls and baggage 
followed in long single file, in the tract made in the snow. The 
mountain was scaled — the region of perpetual congelation, 
was -^niered. It was the winter solstice, and a place where the 
summer solstice brought no life to vegetation — no thaw to con- 
gelation. The summit of the sierra was bare of everything but 
snow, ice and rocks. It was no place to halt. Pushing down 
the side of the mountain to reach the wood, three miles distant, 
a new and awful danger presented itself : a snow storm raging, 
the freezing winds beating upon the exposed caravan, the snow 
became too deep for the mules to move in, and the cold beyond 
the endurance of animal life. The one hundred and twenty 
mules, huddling together from an instinct of self-preservation 
from each other's heat and shelter, froze stiff as they stood, and 
fell over like blocks, to become hillocks of snow. Leaving all 
behind, and the men's lives to be saved, the discomfited and 
freezing party scrambled back, recrossing the summit, and find- 
ing imder the lee of the mountain some shelter from the driving 
storm, and in the wood that was reached, the means of making 
fires. 

" The men's lives were now saved, but they were destitute of 
everything, only a remnant of provisions, and not even the resource 
of the dead mules, which were on the other side of the summit ; 
and the distance computed at ten days' travel to the nearest 
New Mexican settlement. The guide and three picked men were 
dispatched thither for some supplies, and twenty days fixed for 
their return. When they had gone sixteen days, Fremont, preyed 
upon by anxiety and misgiving, set off after them on foot, snow 
to the waist, blankets and some morsels of food on the back : the 
brave Godey, his draughtsman, Preuss, and a faithful servant, his 
only company. When out six days, he came upon the camp of 



FOTJEXn EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 363 

his guide, stationary and apparently without pain or object, 
and the men, wild and emaciated. Not seeing King, the princi- 
pal one of the company, and on whom he relied, he asked for 
him. They pointed to an older camp, a little way oflf, ^Going 
there he found the man dead, and horribly devoured. He had 
died of exhaustion, of fatigue, and his comrades fed upon him. 
Gathering up these three survivors, Fremont resumed his jour- 
ney, and had not gone far before he fell on signs of Indians — 
two lodges, implying fifteen or twenty men, and some forty 
or fifty horses — all recently passed along. At another time this 
would have been an alarm, one of his fears being that of falling 
in with a war party. He knew not what Indians they were, but 
all were hostile in that quarter, and evasion was the only secu- 
rity against them. To avoid their course was his obvious 
resource : on the contrary he followed it ; for such was the des- 
peration of his situation that even a chance of danger had an 
attraction. Pursuing the trail down the Del Norte, then frozen 
solid over, and near the place where Pike had encamped in the 
winter of 1807-8, they saw an Indian behind his party, stopped 
to get water from an air hole. He was cautiously approached, 
circumvented and taken. Fremont told him his name : the 
young man, for he was quite young, started, and asked him if he 
was the Fremont that exchanged presents with the chief of the 
Utahs, at Les Veges do Santa Clara, three years before ? He 
was answered, ' Yes,' 

" ' Then,' said the young man, ' we are fri-ends : that chief 
is my father, and I remember you.' 

" The incident was romantic ; but it did not stop here. 
Though on a war inroad upon the frontiers of New Mexico, the 
young <;hief became his guide, let him have four horses, con- 
ducted him to the neighborhood of the settlements, and then 
took his leave to resume his scheme of depredation on the fron- 
tier. 

" Fremont's party reached Taos, was sheltered in the house of 
his old friend Carson — obtaining the supplies needed — sent them 



364 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

back by the brave Godey, who was in time to save two-lbirds 
of the party, finding the other third dead upon the road, scat- 
tered at intervals as each had sunk exhausted and frozen, or 
half burned in the fire which had been kindled for them to die 
by. The survivors were brought in by Godey, some crippled with 
frozen feet. Fremont found himself in a situation which tries 
the soul — which makes the issue between despair and heroism — 
and leaves no alternative but to sink under fate, or to rise above 
it. His whole outfit was gone : his valiant mountain men were 
one third dead, many crippled : he was penniless, and in a 
strange place. He resolved to go forward, nulla vestigia retror- 
sum : to raise another outfit, and turn the mountains by the Gila. 
In a few days it was done — men, horses, arms, provisions, all ac- 
quired : and the expedition resumed. 

" But it was no longer the tried band of mountain men ou 
whose vigilance, skill and courage he could rely to make their 
way through hostile tribes. They were new men, and to avoid 
danger, not to overcome it, was his resource. The Navahoes and 
Apaches had to be passed and eluded, a thing difficult to be 
done, as his party of thirty men and double as many horses 
would make a trail easy to be followed in the snow, though not 
deep. He took an unfrequented course, and relied upon the 
secrecy and celerity of his movements. The fourth night on 
the dangerous groimd, the horses, picketed without the camp, 
gave signs of alarm. They were brought within the square of 
fires, and the men put on the alert. Daybreak came without 
visible danger. The camp moved ofi"; a man lagged a little 
behind, contrary to injunctions, the crack of some rifles sent 
him rimning up. It was then clear that, they were discovered, 
and a party hovering round them. Two Indians were seen 
ahead ; they might be a decoy, or a watch, to keep the party in 
view until the neighboring warriors could come in. Evasion 
was no longer possible ; fighting was out of the question, for the 
whole hostile country was ahead, and narrow defiles to be 
passed in the mountains. All depended upon the address of 



FOURTH EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 365 

their commander. Relying upon Lis ascendency over the savage 
mind, Fremont took hia interpreter, and went to the two Indians. 
Godey said he should not go alone, and followed. Approachino- 
them, a deep ravine was seen between. The Indians beckoned 
him to go round by the head of the ravine, evidently to place 
that obstacle between him and his men. Symptoms of fear or 
distrust would mar his scheme, so he went boldly round, accosted 
them confidentially, and told his name. They had never heard 
it. He told them they ought to be ashamed not to know their 
best friend ; enquiring for their tribe, which he wished to see : 
and took the whole air of confidence and friendship. He saw 
they were staggered. He then invited them to go to his 
camp, where the men had halted, and take breakfast with him. 
They said that might be dangerous, that they had shot at one 
of his men that morning, and might have killed hiui, and now 
be punished for it. He ridiculed the idea of theii- hurting his 
men, charmed them into the camp, where they ate, and smoked, 
and told their secret, and became messengers to lead their tribe 
in one direction, while Fremont and his men escaped by another, 
and the whole expedition went through without loss, and with- 
out molestation." 

Immediately upon his arrival at Taos and while shar- 
ing the hospitality of his faithful friend Carson, he ad- 
dressed the following letter to his wife, and for its length, 
we scarcely know a more thrilling record .of personal 
adventure in our language : 



LETTER FROM COL. FREMONT TO HIS WIFE. 

" Taos, New Mexico, Jan. 27, 1849. 

" My very DEAR "Wife ! I write to you from the house of our 
good friend Carson. This morning a cup of chocolate was 
brought to me, while yet in bed. To an overworn, overworked, 
much fatigued, and starving traveller, these little luxuries of the 



366 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN 0. FREMONT. 

world offer an interest which in your comfortable homo it is not 
possible for you to conceive. While in the enjoyment of this 
luxury, then, I pleased myself in imagining how gratified you 
would be in picturing me here in Kit's care, whom you will 
fancy constantly occupied and constantly uneasy in endeavoring 
to make me comfortable. How little could you have dreamed 
of this while he was enjoying the pleasant hospitality of your 
father's house ! The furthest thing then from your mind was 
that he would ever repay it to me here. 

" But I have now the unpleasant task of telling you how f 
came here. I had much rather write you some rambling letters 
in unison with the repose in which I feel inclined to indulge, 
and talk to yoTi about the future with which I am already busily 
occupied ; about my arrangements for getting speedily down into 
the more pleasant climate of the lower Del Norte and rapidly 
through into California ; and my plans when I get there. J 
have an almost invincible repugnance to going back among 
scenes where I have endured much suffering, and for all the in- 
cidents and circumstances of which I feel a strong aversion. But 
as clear infDrmation is absolutely necessary to you, and to your 
father more particularly still, I will give you the story now in- 
stead of waiting to tell it to you in California. But I write in 
the great hope that you will not receive this letter. When it 
reaches Washington you may be on your way to California. 

" Former letters have made you acquainted with our journey 
BO far as Bent's Fort, and from report you will have heard the 
circumstances of our departure from the Upper Pueblo of the 
Arkansas. We left that place about the 25th of November, 
with upwards of a hundred good mules and one hundred and 
thirty bushels of shelled corn, intended to support our animals 
across the snow of the high mountains, and down to the lower 
parts of the Grand River tributaries, where usually the snow 
forms DO obstacle to winter travelling. At the Pueblo, I had 
engaged as a guide an old trapper well known as ' Bill Wil- 
liams,' and who had spent some twenty-fiv^e years of his life in 



FOUETH EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 367 

trapping various parts of the Rocky Mountains. The error of 
our journey was committed in engaging this man. He proved 
never to have in the least known, or eutirely to have forgotten, 
the whole region of country through which we were to pass. 
"We occupied more than half a month in making tlie journey 
of a few days, blundering a tortuous way through deep .snow 
which already began to choke up the passes, for which we were 
obliged to waste time in searching. About the 11th December 
we found ourselves at the North of the Del Norte Canon, where 
that river issues from the St. John's Mountain, one of the high- 
est, most rugged and impracticable of all the Rocky Mountain 
ranges, inaccessible to trappers and hunters even in the .<iumraer 
time. Across the point of this elevated range our guide con- 
ducted us, and having still great confidence in his knowledge, 
we pressed onwards with fatal resolution. Even along the 
river bottoms the snow was already belly deep for the mules, 
frequently snowing in the valley and almost constantly in the 
mountains. The cold was extraordinary ; at the warmest 
hours of the day (between one and two) the thermometer 
(Fahrenheit) standing in the shade of only a tree trunk at 
zero ; the day sunshiny, with a moderate breeze. We pressed 
up towards the summit, the snow deepening ; and in four or 
five days reached the naked ridges which lie above the tim- 
bered country, and which form the dividing grounds between 
the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Along these 
naked ridges, it storms nearly all winter, and the winds sweep 
across them with remorseless fury. On our first atten)f)t to 
cross we encountered a pouderie (dry snow driven thick 
through the air by violent wind, and in which objects are 
visible only at a short distance), and were driven back, hav- 
ing some 10 or 12 men variously frozen, face, hands, or feet. 
The guide became nigh being frozen to death here, and dead 
mules were already lying about the fires. Meantime, it snowed 
steadily. The next day we made mauls, and beating a road 
or trench through the snow crossed the crest in defiance of 



368 LIFE AND 8ERVI0E8 OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

the pouderie, and encamped immediately below in the edge 
of the timber. The trail showed as if a defeated party had 
passed by ; pack-saddles and packs, scattered articles of cloth- 
ing, and dead mules strewed along. A continuance of stormy 
weather paralyzed all movement. We were encamped some- 
where about 12,000 feet above the sea. Westward, the coun- 
try was buried in deep snow. It was impossible to advance, 
and to turn back was equally impracticable. We were over- 
taken by sudden and inevitable ruin. It so happened that 
the only places where any grass could be had were the ex- 
treme summit of the ridges, where the sweeping winds kept 
the rocky ground bare and the snow could not lie. Below 
these, animals could not get about, the snow being deep 
enough to bury them. Here, therefore, in the full violence 
of the storms we were obliged to keep our animals. They 
could not be moved either way. It was instantly apparent 
that we should lose every animal. 

" I determined to recross the mountain more towards the 
open country, and haul or pack the baggage (by men) down to 
the Del Norte. With great labor the baggage was transported 
across the crest to the head springs of a little stream leading to 
the main river. A few days were sufficient to destroy our fine 
band of mules. They generally kept huddled together, and as 
they froze, one would be seen to tumble down and the snow 
would cover him ; sometimes they would break: off and rush 
down towards the timber until they were stopped by the deep 
snow, where they were soon hidden by the pouderie. The 
courage of the men failed fast; in fact, I have never seen men 
so soon discouraged by misfortune as we were on this occasion ; 
but, as you know, the party was not constituted like the former 
ones. But among those who deserve to be honorably mentioned 
and who behaved like what they were — men of the old explor- 
ing party, — were Godey, King, and Taplin; and first of all Godey. 
In this situation, I determined to send in a party to the Spanish 
Bettlements of New Mexico for provisions and mules to ta'ansport 




TUKRIKIC SNOW STORM ON TUB ROCKY MOUNTAINS— COL. FREMONT KEKPS CHRISTMAS 
READING BLACKSTONB — PAGE 3G9. 



^ 



FOURTH EXPLORING EXPEDITION. S69 

our baggage to Taos. With economy, and after we should leave 
the mules, we had not two weeks' provisions in the camp. These 
consisted of a store which I had reserved for a hard day, 
macaroni and bacon. From among the volunteers I choose 
King, Brackenridge, Creutzfeldt, and the guide Williams ; the 
party under the command of King. In case of the least delay 
at the settlements, he was to send me an express. In the mean- 
time, we were to occupy ourselves in removing the baggage and 
equipage down to the Del Norte, which we reached with our 
baggage in a few days after their departure (which was the day 
after Christmas). Like many a Christmas for years back, mine 
was spent on the summit of a wintry mountain, my heart filled 
with gloomy and anxious thoughts, with none of the merry faces 
and pleasant luxuries that belong to that happy time. You may 
be sure we contrasted much this with the last at Washington, 
and speculated much on your doings, and made many warm 
wishes for your happiness. Could you have looked into 
Agrippa's glass for a few moments only ! You remember the 
volumes of Blackstone which I took from your father's library 
when we were overlooking it at our friend Brant's ? They 
made my Christmas amusements. I read ihem to pass the 
heavy time and forget what was around me. Certainly you 
may suppose that my first law lessons will be well remembered. 
Day after day passed by and no news from our express party. 
Snow continued to fall almost incessantly on the mountain. 
The spirito of the camp grew lower. Prone laid down in the 
trail and froze to death. In a sunshiny day, and having with 
him means to make a fire, he threw his blankets down in the trail 
and laid there till he froze to death. After sixteen days had 
elapsed from King's departure, I became so uneasy at the delay 
that I decided to wait no longer. I was aware that our troops 
had been engaged in hostilities with the Spanish Utahs and 
Apaches, who range in the North River valley, and became 
fearful that they (King's party) had been cut ofi" by these 
Indians ; I could imagine no other accident. Leaving the camp 

16* 



370 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

employed with the baggage and in charge of Mr. Vincenthaler, 
I started down the river with a small party consisting of Godey, 
(with his young nephew), Mr. Preuss and Saunders. We 
carried our arms and provision for two or three days. In the 
camp the messes had provisions for two or three meals, more or 
less; and about five pounds of sugar to each man. Failing to 
meet King, my intention was to make the Red River settlement 
about twenty-five miles north of Taos, and send back the 
speediest relief possible. My instructions to the camp were, 
that if they did not hear from me within a stated time, they 
were to follow down the Del Norte. 

" On the second day after leaving camp we came upon a fresh 
trail of Indians — two lodges, with a considerable number of 
animals. This did not lessen our uneasiness for our people. As 
their trail when we met it turned and went down the river, we 
followed it. On the fifth day we surprised an Indian on the ice 
of the river. He proved to be an Utah, son of a Grand River chief 
we had formerly known, and behaved to us in a friendly man- 
ner. We encamped near them at night. By a present of a 
rifle, my two blankets, ^nd other promised rewards when we 
should get in, I prevailed upon this Indian to go with us as a 
guide to the Red River settlement, and take with him four of 
his horses, principally to carry our little baggage. These were 
wretchedly poor, and could get along only In a very slow v/alk. 
On that day (the sixth) we left the lodges late, and travelled 
only some six or seven miles. About sunset we discovered a 
little smoke, in a grove of timber off from the river, and think- 
ing perhaps it might be our express party on its return, we went 
to see. Vhis was the twenty-second day since they had left us, 
and the sixth since we had left the camp. We found them — 
three of them — Creutzfeldt, Brackenridge, and Williams — the 
most miserable objects I have ever seen! I did not recognize 
Creutzfeldt's features when Brackenridge brought him up to me 
and mentioned his name. They had been starving. King had 
starved to death a few days before. His remains were some 



FOUETH EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 371 

six or eight miles above, near the river. By aid of the horses, 
we carried these three men with us to Red River settlement, which 
we reached (Jan. 20), on the tenth evening after leaving our 
camp in the mountains, having travelled through snow and on 
foot one hundred and sixty miles. r~"Took upon the anxiety 
which induced me to set out from the camp as an inspiration. 
Had I remained there waiting the party which had been sent in, 
every man of us would probably have perished, 

"The morning after reaching the Red River town, Godej 
and myself rode on to the Rio Hondo and Taos, in search of 
animals and supplies, and on the second evening after that on 
which we had reached Red River, Godey had returned to that 
place with about thirty animals, provisions, and four Mexicans, 
with which he set out for the camp on the following morning. 
On the road he received eight or ten others, which were turned 
over to him by the orders of Major Beale, the commanding offi- 
cer of this northern district of New Mexico. I expect that 
Godey will reach this place with the party on Wednesday eve- 
ning, the 31st. From Major Beale I received the offer of every 
aid in his power, and such actual assistance as he was able to 
render. Some horses which he had just recovered from the 
Utahs were loaned to me, and he supplied me from the commis- 
sary's department with provisions which I could have had 
nowhere else. T find myself in the midst of -friends. With Carson is 
living Owens, and Maxwell is at his father-in-law's, doing a very 
prosperous business as a merchant and contractor for the troops. 

" Evening. Mr. St. Vrain and Aubrey, who have just arrived 
from Santa Fe, called to see me. I, had the pleasure to learn 
that Mr. St. Vrain sets out from Santa Fe on the 15th of Febru- 
ary, for St. Louis, so that by him I have an early and certain 
opportunity of sending you my letters. Beale left Santa Fe on 
his journey to California on the 9th of this month. He probably 
carried on with him any letters which might have been at Santa 
Fe for me. I shall probably reach California with him or shortly 
after him. Say to your father that these are my plans for the 
futTire. 



873 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

•' At the beginning of February (about Saturday) I sbal] set 
out for California, taking the southern route, by the Rio Ahajo 
the Paso del Norte, and the south side of the Gila, entering 
California at the Agua Caliente, thence to Los Angeles and 
immediately north. I shall break up my party here and take 
with me only a few men. The survey has been uninterrupted 
up to this point, and I shall carry it on consecutively. As 
soon as possible after reaching California I will go on with 
the siirvey of the coast and coast country. Your father knows 
that this is an object of great desire with me, and I trust it is 
not too much to hope that he may obtain the countenance and 
aid of the President (whoever he may be) in carrying it on eflfec- 
tually and rapidly to completion. For this I hope earnestly. I 
shall then be enabled to draw up a map and report on the whole 
country, agreeably to our previous anticipations. All my other 
plans remain entirely unaltered. I shall take immediate steps 
to make ourselves a good home in California, and to have a 
place ready for your reception, which I anticipate for April. 
My hoj^es and wishes are more strongly than ever turned thai 
way. 

'''Monday, 29. My letter now assumes a journal form. No 
news yet from the party, — a great deal of falling weather ; rain 
and sleet here, and snow in the mountains. This is to be con- 
sidered a poor country ; mountainous, with severe winters and 
but little arable land. To the United States it seems to me to 
offer little other value than the right of way. It is throughout 
infested with Indians, with whom in the course of the present 
year the United States will be at war, as well as in the Oregon 
Territory. To hold this country will occasion the government 
great expense, and, certainly, one can see no source of profit or 
advantage in it. An additional regiment will be required for 
special service here. 

" Mr. St. Vrain dined with us to-day. Owens goes to Mis- 
souri in April to get married, and thence by water to Cali- 
fornia. Carson is very anxious to go there with me now, and 



FOURTH EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 373 

afterwards remove his family thither, but he cannot decide to 
break off from Maxwell and family connections. 

" I am anxiously waiting to hear fi'om my party, in much un- 
certainty as to their fate. My presence kept them together and 
quiet, my absence may have bad a bad effect. When we over- 
took King's starving party, Brackenridge said that he ' would 
rather have seen me than his father.' He felt himself safe. 

" Taos, New Mexico, February 6, 1849. 

" After a long delay, which had wearied me to a point of re- 
solving to set out again myself, tidings have at last reached me 
from my ill-fated party. Mr. Haler came in last night, having 
the night before reached Red River settlement, with some three 
or four others. Including Mr, King .and Proue, we have lost 
eleven of our party. Occurrences after I left them, are briefly 
these, so for as they are within Haler's knowledge. I say briefly, 
my dear Jessie, because now I am unwilling to force myself to 
dwell upon particulars. I wish for a time to shut out these 
things from my mind, to leave this country, and all thoughts 
and all things connected with recent events, which have been 
so signally disastrous as absolutely to astonish me with a persis- 
tence of misfortune, which no precaution has been adequate on 
my part to avert. 

" You will remember that I had left the camp with occupation 
sufficient to employ them for three or four days, after which they 
were to follow me down the river. Within that time T had 
expected the relief from King, if it was to come at all. 

" They remained where I had left them seven days, and then 
started down the river. Manuel — you will remember Manuel, 
the Cosumne Indian — gave way to a feeling of despair after they 
had travelled about two miles, begged Haler to shoot him, and 
then turned and made his way back to the camp ; intending to 
die there,, as he doubtless soon did. They followed our trail 
down the river — twenty-two men they were in all. About ten 
miles below the camp. Wise gave out, threw away his gun and 



374 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

blanket, and a few hundred yards further fell over into the snow 
aad died. Two Indian boys, young men, countrymen of Manuel 
were behind. They rolled up Wise in his blanket, and buried 
him in the snow on the river bank. No more died that day — 
Eone the next. Carver raved during the night, his imagination 
wholly occupied with images of many things which he fancied 
himself eating. In the morning, he wandered off fpom the 
party, and probably soon died. They did not see him again, 
feorel on this day gave out, and laid down to die. They built 
him a fire, and Morin, who was in a dying condition, and snow- 
blind, remained. These two did not probably last till the next 
morning. That evening, I think, Hubbard killed a deer. They 
travelled on, getting here and there a grouse, but probably 
nothing else^ the snow having frightened off the game. Things 
were desperate, and brought Haler to the determination of 
breaking up the party, in order to prevent them from living 
upon each other. He told them ' that he had done all he could 
for them, that they had no other hope remaining than the 
expected relief, and that their best plan was to scatter and make 
the best of their way in small parties down the river. That, for 
his part, if he was to be eaten, he would, at all events, be found 
travelling when he did die.' They accordingly separated. 
With Mr. Haler continued five others and the two Indian boys. 
Rohrer now became very despondent ; Haler encouraged him 
by recalling to mind his family, and urged him to hold out a 
little longer. On this day he fell behind, but promised to over- 
take them at evening. Haler, Scott, Hubbard, and Martin 
agreed that if any one of them should give out, the others were 
not to wait for him to die, but build a fire for him, and push oa. 
At night, Kern's mess encamped a few hundred yards from 
Haler's, with the intention, according to Taplin, to remain where 
they were until the relief should come, and in the meantime to 
live upon those who had died, and upon the weaker ones as they 
should die. With the three Kerns were Cathcart, Andrews, 
McKie, Stepperfeldt, and Taplin. 



FOITKTH EXPLOKING EXPEDITION. 375 

"Ferguson and Beadle had remained together behind. In 
the evening, Rohrer came up and remained with Kern's mess. 
Mr. Ilaler learned afterwards from that mess that Rohrer and 
Andrews wandered off the next day and died. They say they 
saw their bodies. In the morning Haler's party continued on. 
After a few hours, Hubbard gave out. They built him a fire 
gathei>ed him some wood, and left him, without, as Haler says, 
turning their heads to look at him as they went off. About 
two miles further, Scott — you remember Scott — who used to 
shoot birds for you at the frontier — gave out. They did the 
same for him as for Hubbard, and continued on. In the after- 
noon, the Indian boys went ahead, and before nightfall met 
Godey with the relief. Haler heard and knew the guns which 
he fired for him at night, and starting early in the morning, 
soon met him. I hear that they all cried together like children. 
Haler turned back with Godey, and went with him to where 
they had left Scott. He was still alive, and was saved. Hub- 
bard was dead — still warm. From Kern's mess they learned 
the death of Andrews and Rohrer, and a little above, met 
Ferguson, who told them that Beadle had died the night 
before. 

" Godey continued on with a few New Mexicans and pack 
mules to bring down the baggage from the camp. Haler, with 
Martin and Bacon, on foot, and bringing Scott on horseback, 
have first arrived at the Red River settlement. Provisions and 
horses for them to ride were left with the others, who preferred 
to rest on the river until Godey came back. At the latest, they 
they should all have reached Red River settlement last night, 
and ought all to be here this evening. When Godey arrives, I 
shall know from him all the circumstances sufficiently in detail 
to enable me to understand clearly everything. But it will not 
be necessary to tell you anything further. It has been sufficient 
pain for you to read what I have already written, 

"As I told you, I shall break up my party here. I have 
engaged a Spaniard to furnish mules to take my little party 



376 LIFK AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

with our baggage, as far down the Del Norte as Albuquerque. 
To-morrow a friend sets out to purchase me a few nmles, with 
which he is to meet me at Albuquerque, and thence I continue 
the journey on my own animals. My road will take me 
down the Del Norte, about 160 miles below Albuquerque 
and then passes between this river and the heads of the 
Gila, to a little Mexican town called, I think, Tusson. Thence 
to the mouth of the Gil/i and across the Colorado, direct 
to Agua Caliente, into California. I intend to make the 
journey rapidly, and about the middle of March ;* hope for 
the great pleasure of hearing from home. I look for a large 
supply of newspapers and documents, more perhaps because 
these things have a home look about them than on their own 
account. When I think of you all, I feel a warm glow at my 
heart, which renovates it like a good medicine, and I forget 
painful feelings in strong hope for the future. We shall yet, 
dearest wife, enjoy quiet and happiness together — these are 
nearly one and the same to me now. I make frequently pleasant 
pictures of the happy home we are to have, and oftenest and 
among the pleasantest of all I see, our library with its bright fire 
in the rainy stormy days, and the large windows looking out 
upon the sea in the bright weather. I have it all planned in my 
own mind. It is getting late now. La Harpe says that there 
are two gods which are very dear to us, Hope and Sleep. My 
homage shall be equally divided between them ; both make the 
time pass lightly until I see you. So I go now to pay a willing 
tribute to one with my heart full of the other." 

On arriving at Sicorro, he addressed the following 
letter to Colonel Benton : 

LETTER FROM COL. FREMONT TO COL. BENTON. 

Socorro, Rio del Norte, February 24, 1349. 

My Dear Sir : I write a line from this place in the hope that 
by way of Chihuahua and Vera Cruz, it will reach you sooner 



FOURTH EXPLOKING EXPEDITION. 377 

than letters by the direct mail from Santa Fd, and so be in 
advance of exaggerated reports of the events which have 
delayed my journey, and turned me in this direction. Letters 
which I have forwarded by Mr. St. Vrain, will inform you that 
we were overtaken and surrounded by deep and impracticable 
snows in the Rocky Mountains at the head of the Del Norte. 
We lost all our animals and ton men, the mules frozen, and the 
men starved to death, Proue only excepted. He was frozen 
The miscarriage of an express party, sent in under Mr, King, was 
a secondary cause of our greatest calamity in the loss of our men. 
In six days after leaving my camp in the mountains, I over- 
took his party, they having been out twenty-two days, and King 
having been starved to death. In four days afterwards I reached 
the settlements, in time to save many, but too late to rescue all 
the men. Relief was immediately sent back, but did not meet 
them in time to save all. An attempt, made with fresh animals, 
to get our baggage out of the snow, failed entirely, resulting 
only in the loss of ten or twelve animals more. On the main 
river bottoms at the foot of the mountains, the snow was five 
feet deep, and in the mountains impassable. Camp furniture of 
all descriptions, saddles, pack-saddles, &c., clothes, money, &c., 
all lost. I had the good fortune to recover one of my baggage 
trunks, which Jessie will remember to have packed for me, and 
so saved some clothes, &c. My instruments, which T always 
carry with me, were in greater part saved. 

"The officers of the army stationed in the country have been 
uniformly prompt and liberal in their attentions to me, offering 
me all the assistance in their power. In this country, where 
supplies are scarce and extravagantly high, this assistance was 
of great value to me in prosecuting my journey. Among those 
whom I ought particularly to mention is Major Beale, who is in 
command of the Northern District, Capt. Judd, Lieut. Thomas, 
Dr. Webb, and Capt. Buford. I mention their names particu- 
larly, knowing that you will take pleasure in reciprocating it to 
them. Colonel Washington desired me to call on him without 



378 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN 0. FREMONT. 

reserve for anything at his command. He invited me to dine 
with him one out of the two days I spent at Sante Fe, and dined 
with" me at the officers' quarters on the other. Major Weight- 
man (of Washington, son-in-law of Mr. Cox) was very friendly 
in his attentions to me, and Capt. Brent, of the quartermaster's 
deputy, gave me some most effective aid in my equipment. 
Amono- the citizens who have treated me with some attention, I 
make it a duty to recommend to your attention, when you may 
meet him, our fellow-citizen of St. Louis, Mr. F. X. Aubry. You 
will remember him as having lately made an extraordinary ride 
from Sante F6 to Independence. We have been travelling 
together from Santa Fd to this place. Among other acts 
of kindness, I received from him a loan of $1000, to purchase 
animals for my journey to California. 

" I reached this town at half-past eight o'clock this morning, 
by appointment to breakfast. Capt. Buford, who commands 
here, received me with much kindness, and I am staying with 
him. This is a military post, and with the exception of a little 
village or two, a few miles below, the last settlement we see 
until reaching Tusson, even should we pass by that route. We 
go on this afternoon, and perhaps reach California in twenty -five 
days. The weather here is warm, and the people engaged in 
opening the ground for sowing. I will write a brief note to 
Jessie, and conclude this, as I shall be much pressed to get 
through the business set apart for this day. 

" Very afiectionately, 

" J. C. Fremont. 
" Hon, Thomas H. Benton, Washington City." 



MAKIP08AS. 379 



CHAPTER XIY. 

FEEMONT SETTLES IN MAEIP0SA8 CAUSE OF INDIAN HC'STI- 

LITIE8 TITLE TO MAKIPOSAS ORIGINAL DEED OF THE 

ESTATE ^TITLE QUESTIONED AND RESISTED BY CALEB 

GUSHING CONFIRMED BY THE U. 8. SUPREME COURT 

OPINION OF CHIEF JUSTICE TANEY RECEIVES THE AP- 
POINTMENT OF MEXICAN BOUNDARY COMMISSIONER HIS 

MAGNANIMITY TO COL. WELLER— FIRST POLITICAL LETTER 
SELECTED TO THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 

CoL. Fremont had arrived in California with the 
intention of making it his future home. By a judicious 
investment of about $3,000 in 1847, he had become 
the proprietor of one of the most vabiable tracts 
of land, for, its size, in the world, the Marij)osas, and 
it was his fixed intention to devote all his energies to 
the development of its mineral and agricultural re- 
Bources. 

Tlie Mariposas Estate lies about two hundred and 
twentj-five miles north of San Francisco, in a basin of 
the mountain on the north flank of the Sierra Nevada. 
It covers an area of about sevent j square miles. Through 
it run the two main gold bearing ledges of California, 
and it is watered bj' two fine streams through its entii-e 
length, the Agua Fria and the Mariposas, both of which 



880 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

have their rise in Mount Bullion, thus very appropri'- 
ately named, out of compliment to Col. Benton. The 
mountains in the rear, of granite, run up into lofty peaks 
M'^liicli arc covered with eternal snow, and about twenty. 
miles from the borders of the estate is a waterfall 2300 
feet high, the highest we believe in the world. The 
valley of the Mariposas M-as the favorite hunting ground 
of one of the bravest and most warlike tribes of Indians 
on the Pacific coast, the Chauchlles, and when Col. Fre- 
mont first passed through it on his third expedition, our 
readers will remember that he had an alarm from them, 
and six men belonging to another party encamped in 
the neighborhood, were killed the-same night. Since 
then they have given a great deal of trouble to the 
whites who have visited the estate, whom as a race they 
look upon with justifiable suspicion. In 1851 a regi- 
ment under the command of Col. Johnson, was sent up 
into the Mariposa to punish this tribe for some murders 
which they had committed, and the colonel is reported 
to have said that he never knew an Indian war that was 
not occasioned by the brutality of the whites, and attri 
bated the one in which he was engaged to the same 
cause. The editor of the California Courier^ who was 
with him, confirmed the colonel's impressions by the 
following story : 

" Four Creeks, a long way up in the Mariposa mountains, is an 
excellent farming and grazing country. There the waters are 
as bright as moonbeams, and come down from the mountain 
springs as cool as the sheeted snow. Pine trees, six or eight 
feet through, run v,p as straight as an arrow, two hundred to the 
sky, and the wide-spreading oak will shelter a whole tribe under 
its branches. Although the hills are covered with heavy snows. 



II 



Fremont's title to mariposas. 381 

the temperature of the valleys is as mild as those of Switzerland, 
the streams are full of salmon, and the crimson clover fills the 
whole air with a sweet perfume. It is the Indian's Pai'adise in 
California, and the Mexican population have never molested them 
in it. At Four Creeks, was a magnificent oak — the king oak of 
the mountain. It was a sacred tree to the Indians. Under its 
branches they held their councils, and worshipped the Great 
Spirit. Here, also, they buried their chiefs and wise men. It 
bad always been respected by the immigrants, until some two 
months since when a cattle dealer drove a large number of oxen 
up from "Walker's Pass to the Indian village. He was treated 
with the greatest kindness by the natives, and they ofiered to 
assist him to ' corral ' his beasts. But the old man took a fancy 
to build his ' corral ' around the old oak. He was told its sacred 
character, and remonstrated with, but to no purpose. He had 
made up his mind that his cattle should sleep in the Indian 
church, and he ' would be d — d if they shouldn't.' Well, the 
red men got out their arrows, and at night killed the old man 
and his herdsmen, and drove oft' his cattle. Who can blame 
them ? This wanton act has already caused the death of scores 
of Americans, and God only knows how many more victims 
must fall, before their rage ctn be satiated." 

Col. Fremont purchased this property under a Mexi- 
can title, after California became a territory of the 
United States, and as his rights thus acquired have been 
the subject of a long and expensive litigation, only 
brought to a final close within the last year, and as the 
magnitude and singularity of the estate have given it 
already an historical" importance, we may venture to 
give a brief history of his title, and of the struggles he 
has had to maintain it. 

In 18M, Manuel Micheltorrena, then governor and 
commandant general, issued a grant of what is now 



382 LITE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

known as the Mariposas property, to Juan Alvarado, pur- 
porting to be founded upon the patriotic services of Alva- 
rado, who had been conspicuous in the commotions in 
California which resulted from the centralizing policy of 
Mexico, out of which grew the Texas revolution, and was 
afterwards appointed governor by the provincial depu- 
tation. In 1837, he repelled the effort of Cavallo who 
had been appointed governor by Mexico, to take posses- 
sion of the government, and was afterwards confirmed as 
governor of California by the constitutional authorities 
of Mexico. He continued in that office until Michel- 
torrena was appointed to succeed him, and he was 
appointed first counsellor of the departmental junta with 
\ salary of $1,500. For these services the following 
grant was made: 

" Whereas, Don Juan B. Alvarado, colonel of the auxiliary 
militia of this department, is worthy for his patriotic services, to 
be preferred in his pretension for his personal benefit and that 
of his family, for the tract of land known by the name of the 
Mariposas, to the extent of ten square leagues (sitior de ganado 
mayor), within the limits of the Snow Mountain (Sierra Nevada) 
and the rivers known by the names of the Chauchilles, of the 
Mereed, and the San Joaquin, the necessary requirements, 
according to the provisions of the laws and regulations, having' 
been previously complied with, by virtue of the authority in me 
vested, in the name of the Mexican nation, I have granted to 
him the aforesaid tract, declaring the same by these presents his 
property in fee, subject to the approbation of the Most Excellent 
the Departmental Assembly, and to tho following conditions : 

" ' 1. lie shall not sell, alienate, or mortgage the same, nor 
subject it to taxes, entail, or any other incumbrance. 

" ' 2. He may inclose it without obstructing the crossings, the 
roads, or the right of way ; he shall enjoy the same freely and 



OEIGmAL DEED OF MAKIP08AS. 383 

without hindrance, destining it to such use or cultivation as 
may most suit liim, but he shall build a house within a year, and 
it shall be inhabited. 

" '3. TTe shall solicit, from the proper magistrate, the judicial 
possession of the same, by virtue of this patent, by whom the 
boundaries shall be marked out, on the limits of which he (the 
grantee) shall place the proper landmarks. 

"'4. The track of land granted is ten sitios de ganado mayor, 
(ten square leagues), as before mentioned. The magistrate who 
may give the possession shall cause ihe same to be surveyed 
according to the ordinance, the surplus remaining to the nation 
for the proper uses. 

" ' 5. Should he violate the conditions, he will lose hia right 
to the laud, and. it will be subject to being denounced by 
another. 

"' Therefore, I command that these presents being firm and 
binding, that the same be registered in the proper book, and 
delivered to the party interested, for his security and other pur- 
poses. 

" ' Given in Monterey, this 20th day of the month of Febru- 
ary, in the year of 1844. 

" ' Manuel Micheltorrena. 

" ' Manuel Timeno, Secretary.^ " 

On the lOtli of February, 1847, Alvarado executed a 
deed of tlie property as described in his own gi-ant to 
Colonel Fremont, with a general warranty of title. The 
consideration stated in the conveyance was $3,000. On 
the 21st of January, 1852, he filed his claim before the 
commissioners appointed to ascertain and settle the 
private land claims in the State of California, and in 
December, 1852, the grant w^s confirmed. On the 20tli 
of September, 1853, there was filed in the office of the 
commissioners, a notice from Mr. Attorney-General 



384 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT, 

Gushing, that an appeal from Ine decision of the Com- 
missioners to the District Court of the United States 
would be prosecuted, and i- consequence of that appeal 
the decision of the commissioners was reversed on the 
7th of January, 1854. An appeal was taken from that 
decision by Col. Fremont to the Supreme Court of the 
United States. The case was argued on the part of 
Col. Fremont by "VYm. Carey Jones, Mr. Bibb and Mr. 
Crittenden ; on the part of the government by Caleb 
Cushing, Attorney-General. The grounds taken against 
the title by the government were as follows : 

" 1. That Fremont's claim is on a gratuitous colonization grant 
by the Mexican governor of California to one Alvarado, of which 
there had been no surveys, no plan, no occupation, no site even, 
no confirmation by the proper public authority, no performance 
of any of the conditions precedent or subsequent annexed to the 
grant. 

" 2. That the concession to Alvarado was null for uncertainty 
of description and incapability of definite location. 

" 3. That the concession was not confirmed by the depart- 
mental Assembly, and was not therefore entitled to confirmation 
by the United States Courts, 

" 4, That the grant was void because the conditions annexed 
had never been performed. 

" 5, That until the governor-general confirmed the concession 
the title remained in the crown. 

" 6, That none of the excuses for non-performance alleged in 
Alvarado's behalf possessed legal force, 

" 7, That the grant to Alvarado was a gratuitous one except 
in so far as the performance of the conditions would relate back 
to constitute a consideration. 

• " 8. That the original petition, the provisional grant and the 
decree of the Commissioners, each assumed a floating claim not 
as a grant of an identical tract of land by metes and bounds. 



OPINION OF CHIEF JUSTICE TANEY. 385 

The Supreme Court took a different view of the case 
from Mr. Gushing ; reversed the decision of the District 
Court of California, and confirmed CoL Fremont's title 
in every particular. Chief Justice Taney delivered the 
opinion of the Court, in the course of which, while 
speaking of the provision against alienation attached to 
Alvarado's grant, and which, he said, was void, as being 
in violation of a decree of the Mexican Congress, he 
observes :* 

" But if this condition was valid by the laws of Mexico, and 
if any conveyance made by Alvarado would have forfeited the 
land under the Mexican government as a breach of this condi- 
tion, or if it would have 'been forfeited by a conveyance to an 
alien, it does not by any means follow that the same penalty 
would have been incurred by the conveyance to Fremont. 

" California was at that time in possession of the American 
forces, and held by the United States as a conquered country, 
subject to the authority of the American government. The 
Mexican municipal laws, which were then administered, were 
administered under the authority of the United States, and 
might be repealed or abrogated at their pleasure ; and any 
Mexican law inconsistent with the rights of the United States, 
or its public policy, or with the rights of its citizens, were 
annulled by the conquest. Now, there is no principle of public 
law which prohibits the citizen of a conquering country from 
purchasing property, real or personal, in the territory thus 
acquired and held, nor is there anything in the principles of 
our government, in its policy or in its laws, which forfeits it. 
The Mexican government, if it had regained the power, and it 
had been its policy to prevent the alienation of real estate, 
might have treated the sale by Alvarado as a violation of its 
laws ; but it becomes a very different question when the Ame- 

• Howard's United States Supreme Court Reports, vol. xvii., pp. 564-5. 

17 



38^ LIFE AISTD SERVICES OF JOHN C. TREMONT. 

rican government is called on to execute the Mexican law. And 
it can hardly be maintained that an American citizen, who 
makes a contract or purchases property under such circum- 
stances, can be punished in a court of the United States with the 
penalty of forfeiture, when there is no law of Congress to inflict 
it. The purchase was perfectly consistent with the rights and 
duties of Colonel Fremont, as an American officer and an Ame- 
rican citizen ; and the country in which he made the purchase 
was, at the time, subject to the authority and dominion of the 
United States. * * * * * * 

" Upon the whole, it is the opinion of the court that the 
claim of the petitioner is valid, and ought to be confirmed. The 
decree of the district court must, therefore, be reversed, and the 
case remanded, with directions to the district court to enter a 
decree conformably to this opinion." 

Mariposas abounds in gold, and wlienCol. Fremont first 
passed over it, he and his party picked up large quan- 
tities lying upon tlie surface of the soil. It is also said 
to be the easiest placer to work in all California, with 
resources which cannot be exhausted in centuries. 
Guided by the information which he had acquired from 
personal inspection, and from the letters of his agents, 
he brought with him when he reached California this 
year — 1849 — a company of Spaniards, some twenty- 
eight in number, who joined him in Sonora, and with 
whom he contracted for the digging of gold on hia 
estate upon shares. He was to provision them, and 
they were to divide the gold they found equally with 
him. This arrangement proved entirely satisfactory 
and very profitable. The Sonoranians were all respect- 
able Spaniards — many of them already wealthy — and 
in their transactions with him, strictly honorable. He 
readily fulfilled his part of the con tract. by occasionally 



APPOINTED U. 8. C0MMIS8I0NEE. 387 

sending men into the south for cattle, which they drove 
on to the estate, and pastured there until they were 
wanted. 

It was wliile thus agreeably and profitably employed 
in developing the resources of his magnificent estate, 
and rapidly providing for himself and family' a pecuni- 
ary independence, that he received from President 
Taylor the appointment of commissioner to run the 
boundary line between the United States and Mexico, 
in place of John B. Weller, of Ohio, who had then 
but recently been appointed to that office by President 
Polk. 

Col. Fremont determined to accept the office without 
hesitation, for he had reason to look upon it as a very 
friendly and unequivocal expression of General Taylor's 
disapproval of the verdict of the court-martial which 
had dismissed him from the army a few months pre- 
viously. He had the less hesitation in accepting it, 
because he had been politically identified with the 
party which had opposed General Taylor's election to the 
presidency, a fact which, while it heightened the com- 
pliment on the one hand, on the other increased in a 
corresponding degree the difficulty of declining it with- 
out appearing insensible to the generous motives of its 
author. He promptly waited upon Mr. AVeller, when 
he was in Monterey trying to borrow some money for 
the uses of the commission ; informed him of what had 
occurred, and signified his intention to accept the place, 
(it being well understood by both that whether he 
accepted or not, Mr. Weller would not be retained) and 
wished to know when it would be most agreeable to 
Mr. W. to be relieved. Mr. Weller informed him that 
the afi'airs of the commission were in great confusion 



888 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

for want of funds, and that lie would prefer to wait 
until he could get the funds he was in quest of, and 
return to San Diego, where he would arrange his 
affairs as soon as possible. Col. Fremont begged him 
to take his own time. Afterwards, Col. "Weller having 
entirely failed in all his plans for raising the money 
that he required, Col. Fremont endorsed his drafts for 
him, and got them cashed, a kindness afterwards very 
ill-requited. "We are thus particular in mentioning 
these details, because Col, Fremont's acceptance was 
subsequently used to prejudice him with the people of 
California, who had already determined to send him to 
Washington as one of their first senators. Without 
attempting the ungracious task of tracing the calumni- 
ous reports in regard to this appointment to their 
fountain, it is enough for our present purpose to say 
that they reached the ears of Col. Fremont's friends, 
who promptly took the proper means of ascertaining 
and exposing their falsity. 

The following correspondence was the result. Mr. 
Snyder's letter was answered the night it was received, 
and Col. Fremont's reply was the first political letter he 
had ever written. It was in every resj)ect worth}^ of 
the pen of an experienced statesman. 

LETTER FROM JACOB R. SNTDER TO COL, FREMONT. 

San Francisco, Deo. 11th, 1849. 
Dear Sir: Your name has been long before the people of 
California as a candidate for the U. S. Senate. As an old 
resident of California, and a personal friend of long standing, I 
feel the deepest interest in your election, and take the liberty of 
asking of you information on certain points which I discover to 
be mucli agitated by some who ai*e not your friends. Are you 



WELLKK CORRESPONDENCE. 389 

a believer in the distinctive tenets of the democratic party? 
What are your views in relation to an overland communication 
by railroad or otherwise, from the Pacific to the Atlantic and 
through the territory of the United States? What is the true 
history and real nature of your title to a certain tract of land 
which you are said to claim on the Mariposa River? What 
have you done, and what do you propose to do, to establish 
that claim ? 

"What has been your course in reference to a commission 
which you are said to have received to run the boundary line 
called for by the late treaty with Mexico ? Was that appoint- 
ment solicited by yourself or your friends, and have you 
accepted it? and if not, how long did you hold it under consid- 
eration ? 

What was the real nature of the transaction with D. Eulogio 
de Cells, concerning which, certain publications were sometime 
since made in the newspapers of this place and of some of the 
Eastern States? On all of these matters I would respectfully 
subjuit that as full an answer as this short notice will allow, is 
due to your friends and supporters, and tha' in regard to your 
political principles, a declaration would come from you with 
peculiar fitness, seeing that your occupations, honorable as they 
have been, and serviceable to your country, have not Loen of a 
character to call for an expression of your opinions on matters 
of government, and that your friends, though well persuaded 
themselves of your soundness, are yet daily met with the ques- 
tion, 'how do you know that Mr. Fremont is a democrat, and how 
long has he been one ?' " Yours, &c., 

"Jacob K Snyder. 
"J. C. Fremont, Esq." 

REPLY OF COL. FREMONT. 

"8iN Fbanoisco, Deo. lUh, 1849. 

"My Dear Sir: I have the pleasure to acknowledge the 
receipt of your letter to-day, and to make you my kind thanks for 



390 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

the gratification I find in being called to make some reply to the 
vague accusations in circulation against me. I presume that it will 
be a sufficient answer to your first question, simply to state, that 
by association, feeling, principle and education, I am thoroughly 
a democrat; and without entering into any discussion of the 
question at issue between the •two great parties, I have only 
further to say, that I adhere to the great principles of the demo- 
cratic party as they are understood on this and the other side of 
the continent. 1 am strongly in favor of a central, national rail- 
road from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. Recent 
events have converted the vague desire for that work into an 
organized movement throughout the great body of our fellow, 
citizens in the United States, and in common with them, I am 
warmly in favor of its immediate location and speediest possible 
construction. Its stupendous magnitude — the immense benefit 
which it will confer upon our whole country — the changes which 
it will operate throughout the Pacific Ocean and eastern Asia — 
commingling together the European, American, and Asiatic 
races — spreading indefinitely religious,- social and political im- 
provement — chara jterize it as the greatest enterprise of the age, 
and a great question proposed for the solution of the American 
people. There never has been presented an enterprise so calcu- 
lated to draw together in its support all classes of society ; and 
the perpetual and always increasing benefits which it will confer 
upon the human race in addition to the weighty national consi- 
derations, military, political, and commercial, which more imme- 
diately concerns us, call upon us for immediate and efficient 
action. Ardently in favor of the work, it follows of course that 
I am entirely satisfied of its practicability and believe fully in its 
ultimate and speedy construction. Many years of labor and ex- 
ploration of the interior of our continent, and along a great part 
of the way the road will necessarily pass, have conclusively satis- 
fied me not only of its entire practicability, but of extraordinary 
advantages offered for its construction. A late journey across 
the continent from the frontier of Missouri was solely directed to 



WELLEK CORRESPONDENCE. 391 

an examination of the country in reference to the railroad com- 
munication, and was undertaken in the season of winter in order 
that all the obstacles which could exist to the construction of the 
road might be known and fully determined. The result was en- 
tirely satisfactory. It con\'inced me that neither the snow of 
winter nor the mountain ranges were obstacles in the wav of 
the road, and furnished me with a far better line than any I had 
previously known. From the frontier of Missouri along the line 
of the Kansas River, 400 miles of rich wooded <3ountrv, well 
adapted to settlement — by the upper waters of the Arkansas 
into and through the rugged mountains in which they rise, to 
the valley which lies around the head waters of the great Del 
Norte — the profile of the route presents a regularly ascending 
plain, without a perceptible inequality to break the uniformity 
of its surface. Lying between the .28th and ^9th parallels of 
latitude, commencing on the frontier of Missouri at the 39th 
and ending in the Del Norte valley at the 38th — the route pre- 
sents a comparatively straight line, running for a greater part of 
the way through a coantry capable of settlement, and cultivation, 
and passing through the Arkansas chain (one of the most rugged 
in all the Rocky Mountain ranges), by a pass of imperceptible 
grade, and in every respect one of the best with which we are 
acquainted in those difficult mountains. Beyond the Del Norte 
that region yet remains to be explored, well known from reliable 
information to afford through the mountains which separate the 
valley of the Del Norte and Colorado, an excellent pass, travelled 
by the Mexicans at all seasons of the year, which gives every 
reason for believing that the character of the country is equally 
fiivorable. Its further progress would carry it by the southern 
extremity of the country now occupied by the people of De- 
seret, and thence by the line of the Humboldt River around into 
the head of the lower Sacramento valley, by a pass in the Sierra 
Nevada, but little above the general level of the great basin. 
Such a location would be entirely central, passing by the nor- 
thern edge of the Mexican settlements, going through the 



892 LIFE AND 6ERYTCE8 OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

southern part of Mormon — and branching into Oregon from the 
confines of California. 

" Some raontlis since, in conversation with Gen. Smith, I had 
the honor to propose this plan for the location of the road, I 
further indicated to him the existence of this favorable way and 
pass from the Humboldt River into the head of the lower Sacra- 
mento valley. Gen, Smith decided immediately to send an 
exploring party to examine the route, and requested me to send 
him a letter recapitulating the information, in order, as he had 
the kindness to say, that any credit which might hereafter 
belong to the origin of the line, should inure to me. The expe- 
dition was immediately sent, and although it terminated in the 
death of the gallant officer who commanded it, I am informed 
that his journal and sketches fully establish, so far as he went, 
the practicability of the road. You are aware that among the 
indefinite objections which have been raised against me, are 
some of a sectional character. Such objections I think may 
be fairly met with the statement above, 

" The ' Mariposa claim ' is a tract of land ten leagues in 
extent lying upon a creek of the same name in the San Joaquin 
valley. It was purchased for me by Mr. Larkin in the beginning 
of 1847, and during ray absence with the battalion in the south, 
from D, Juan B. Alvarado, to whom it had been granted in 
consideration of his public services. Mr. Larkin paid for it 
$3,000. I have never seen the place, and know nothing of its 
character or value. The purchase was made before California 
was ceded to the United States, and long before any gold had 
been discovered. I had always intended to make my home in 
the country if possible, and for this purpose desired a foothold 
in it. On my return to the country in the present year I visited 
the place in company with Dr. Corrie, Mr. Reid, and several 
other gentlemen, and for the first time saw the land. Two-thirds 
are adapted only to farming ; on the other third gold was discov- 
ered, and we went to work to dig it out. So soon as it was 
known that we were there, hundreds — soon becoming thousands 



WELLEB COEKESPONDENOE. 393 

— crowded to the same place, and to this day from two to three 
thousand persons have been regularly employed. They have 
worked them freely ; no one has ever offered them the slightest 
impediment, nor have I myself, ever expresed to any one or 
entertained an intention of interfering with the free working of 
the mines at that place. I regard the claim to the Mariposa in 
the same light as any other vested right. It was a purchase 
fairly made, and I have always supposed that at some future time 
the validity of the claim would be settled by the proper courts. 
I am satisfied to await that decision, whether it be favorable or 
otherwise, and in the meantime to leave the gold, as it is now, 
free to all who have the industry to collect it. 

" I was at San Josd, when L had the honor to receive from 
President Taylor, by the hands of Dr. Beale, the commission to 
run the boundary line with Mexico. I regarded that commission 
as a disavowal on the part of the President of the proceedings 
recently held against me. Respect to the President, together 
with a full appreciation of the consideration which had induced 
him to make the appointment, did not, in my judgment, permit 
me to decline, and I accordingly accepted the commission, with 
the intention which I then expressed to Mr. Beale and others 
shortly afterwards to resign, I immediately went to San Fran- 
cisco, where I had been informed Col. Weller had arrived. He 
had left that place and I shortly afterwards joined him at Mon- 
terey. The Secretary of State had made me the bearer of the 
letter which superseded Col. Weller. To present it was a dis- 
agreeable office, and from motives of delicacy I did not immedi- 
ately present him the letter, but waited until I was about to 
leave Ihe town. I then called upon Col. Weller, in order to 
ascertain from him, at what time and place it would be most 
agreeable to him, that I should relieve him. I learnt that the 
object of his journey to San Francisco had been to procure funds 
with which to discharge the liabilities of the government to his 
party ; and that it would best suit his purposes to obtain the 
necessary sum, return to San Diego, and be relieved by me at 



394 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

that place. I then informed him that my instructions left me a* 
liberty to relieve when I should be ready to do so, and that 
accordingly he might proceed to San Francisco, and it was 
agreed, that if Col. Weller did not succeed in obtaining money 
from Gen. Riley, to whom he intended to apply, an express 
should be forwarded to me, and the money obtained at San Fran- 
cisco and brought down by me in the steamer. 

" On the eve of leaving San Francisco and too late to negoti- 
ate drafts, I received an express informing me that Gen. Riley 
had declined furnishing the money. When the steamer reached 
Monterey, I found Col. Weller on the landing, ready to embark 
for San Diego, and fully expecting to receive the money ; under- 
standing the embarrassment of his situation, I oflfered, if he 
determined to go on to San Diego, that I would return to San 
Francisco, to procure the money and bring or send it to him. 

"I had, in the mean time, resigned my appointment, informing 
the secretary that I should withhold the letter relieving Mr. 
Weller, and leave the department- at liberty to make its own 
arrangements. 

" It had become unnecessary for me to go to San Diego in the 
public service, and the management of my private affairs did not 
otherwise leave me the necessary time. I suppose that Col. 
Weller was not detained at San Diego, as he returned to this 
place as soon as could be expected after the receipt of the money. 
This is a brief statement of the course I have pursued. It was 
dictated altogether by a disposition to promote the interests of 
Col. Weller, and to make my concern in his removal as little un- 
pleasant as possible. The oflBce was never sought after by me, 
never expected by me, and never sought or expected by any of 
my friends for me. 

" In reply to your inquiry for information regarding the " real 
nature of the transaction with D. Eulogio de Cells,' I have to 
state, that, at a time when the troops under my command were 
destitute of provisions, and we were able to procure them only 
in small and desultory supplier, on a precarious credit, Major 



WELLEK COERESPONDENCE. 395 

Samuel Hensley, then commissary for the battalion, called upon 
me with an offer frOm Mr, Celis, which I was glad to accept 
immediately. The offer was to furnish me with 600 head of 
cattle, at ten dollars per head, and a loan of $2,500, payable all 
in six months, with the usual interest, if not paid at that time, 
we were to return him the hides as the cattle were killed, and 
the difference in price of the cattle ($8 being the cash pi ice 
then), being a bonus for the loan and for the relief afforded by 
the provisions. D. Andres Pico was charged to bring the cattle 
from San Louis Obispo to Los Angeles. In the interval of his 
absence. General Kearney issued his proclamation, taking out of 
my hands the partial direction of affairs which I had retained, 
and destroying the confidence which the people of the South had 
been disposed to place in me. Desirous to know for the satisfac- 
tion of those to whom I was indebted, how far Gen. Kearney 
designed to fulfill my contracts previously made, I immediately 
visited him for that purpose at Monterey. As I have already 
asserted, on my trial before the court martial at Washington, he 
refused to assume any responsibility or to fulfill any contract. I 
immediately returned to Los Angeles, and made known his reply 
to Mr. Celis, Mr. Cot, D. Andres Pico, and other gentlemen then 
at that place. D. Andres Pico had, in the meantime, brought a 
portion of the cattle (between 400 and 500 I believe), to the 
mission of San Fernando, near Los Angeles, where they were 
waiting to be delivered — what disposition should be made of the 
cattle was for some days a subject of discussion between Mr. 
Celis, D. Andres Pico, Major Hensley, and myself. It was at 
first proposed to leave the cattle with D. Andres ; but agreeably 
to the suggestion of Major Hensley, it was decided to place them 
with Mr. Stearns, as a security both to Celis and to the govern- 
ment, until we should be able to know what course would be 
pursued by the government. They were to be kept by Mr. 
Stearns on the terms usually allowed for keeping cattle, viz. : one 
half the increase, and they were not placed in his hand for any 
fixed time, but only to await the action of the government. 



396 LIFE AND SERVI0E3 OF JOHN O. FREMONT. 

" It had been made a matter of charge against me, that I gave 
to Mr. Cells a full receipt for the delivery of all the cattle, when 
I had received only a part. I had the right to do so. I had the 
right to complete my own contracts, when others, whose duty it 
was to resume them, endeavored rather to invalidate them. As 
Mr. Cells had had suflBcient confidence in me to advance me 
money, and I was under order to leave the country immediately, 
I chose to have sufficient confidence in him to give him a receipt 
for all the cattle, and to bind the government to him, so far as I 
possibly could. These cattle were all delivered as soon as they 
could be brought to Los Angeles. 

" Since my return to this country I have received a number of 
aflBdavits to all the occurrences of the forgoing transaction, from 
Mr. Wilson, Mr. Temple, and other gentlemen, citizens of Los 
Angeles. These, with some other papers, were designed for 
another occasion, and are now at Monterey, but they shall be 
published as- soon as I can conveniently do so. Mr. Cells is now 
in this city. I have thus, my dear sir, briefly and hurriedly 
answered your several inquiries ; I should have been better satis- 
fied if there had been time sufficient to give to each particular 
point a well-digested reply, but I trust that they may answer the 
present purpose of removing some erroneous impressions ; and in 
any event, I beg you to receive my thanks for the kindness of 
the motive which dictated your letter, and which, in every way 
is consistent with the same friendly spirit which has always 
influenced your conduct to me. 

" With respect and regard, I am yours truly, 

"J. C. Fremont. 
" J. R. Snyder, Esq." 

This letter put an end to any further talk about Mr. 
Weller's commissionership, and at once placed him in 
the front rank of the candidates for the United States 
Senate from California, under the new constitution which 
had just been adopted by her people. Ten days after 



ELECTED UNITED STATES 6ENAT0K. 397 

the date of his letter the new legislature assembled at 
San Jose the seat of government, and immediately after 
the inauguration of the new governor, Burnett, proceeded 
to an election of United States senators. Fremont was 
elected on the first ballot by seven majority.* 

This election, so flattering to a young man not yet 
thirty-seven years of age, and presenting such alluring 
prospects of political distinction, he felt it his duty 
to accept, although fully aware that it was certain to 
derange, perhaps for ever, the acceptable scheme of life 
he had marked out for himself. In yielding, however, 
he was influenced more by the solicitations of friends 
and a desire to testify his gratitude for their kindness, 
than by any personal conviction of the wisdom or pru- 
dence .of his course. 

* The following was the result of the first ballot. 



John C. Fremont, .... 29 


Wm. W. Gwin, . . . . 22 


H. W. WaUeck, . . . . U 


T. Butler King, .... 10 


Cteary, .... 6 


Semple, .... 3 


Henley, .... 9 




Gwiu was also elected on the thir 


i ballot by a majority of two votes. 



398 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 



CHAPTER XV. 

SAILS FOR "WASHINGTON AS UNITED STATES SENATOR 

TAKES THE CHAGRES FEVER LETPER TO THE PHILA- 
DELPHIA PACIFIO RAILROAD CONVENTION. 

The prompt action of the legislature of California ia 
choosing their senators, resulted mainlj from a, desire 
to have tlie benefit of their services as early as possible 
in Washington, where the question upon the admission 
of California into the Union as a State, was under con- 
sideration. No time was lost, therefore, by Colonel 
Fremont in repairing to his new post of duty. He 
sailed from San Francisco with his family, in the 
steamer that bore the news of his election, to the Atlan- 
tic States, in order that the country which he had 
explored, conquered, and adopted for his home, and 
which had rewarded him by an election to the highest 
office in its gift, should come as soon as possible into the 
enjoyment of all the political rights of a sovereign State 
of the Republic. He was detained on the Isthmus of 
Panama a few weeks by the dangerous illness of Mrs. 
Fremont, and while there, his own system became 
charged with the malaria of the climate, which soo7i 
developed itself in the most malignant form of 
Chagres fever. It was the first and only serious 



TAKES THE CHAGEES FEVEB. 399 

illness he ever had, though it clung to him for 
several years, and is only worthy of particular men- 
tion here as it prevented his attendance at Washing- 
ton during the second year of his senatorial term. 

Soon after his arrival at the seat of government, 
Colonel Fremont was invited to attend a convention 
which was to assemble at Philadelphia on the 1st of 
April, for the purpose of promoting the construction of 
a national road to the Pacific Ocean, through the terri- 
tories of the United States, As he had not yet laid the 
results of his last tour of exploration before the public, 
and as it had been undertaken avowedly for the purpose 
of throwing light upon the great problem of a highway 
across the continent, his views were looked for with 
great interest. His answer to the committee, which we 
give entire, was one of the most explicit and instructive 
documents which, up to that time, had appeared upon 
the subject, from any quarter. 



LBTTER FROM COLONEL FREMONT TO MESSRS. B. GERHARD AICD 
OTHERS, COMMITTEE, &C. 

" Gentlemen : It would have given me great pleasure to have 
been able to accept your kind invitation, and to have met the 
interesting Mississippi and Pacific Railroad Convention on Mon- 
day, but the remains of a Chagres fever confine me to my room, 
and leave me no other mode of showing my sense of your atten- 
tion, and manifesting the interest I take in the great object 
which assembles this convention, than to contribute, so far as I 
can, to the mass of the information which will be laid before it. 
In doing this, I regret that the state of my health does not per- 
mit even the labor necessary to give the distances and barome- 
trical elevations along the route which I shall offer for your con- 



400 LIFE AOT) SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

sideration ; but I have caused a skeleton map, rudely sketched, 
to be prepared to accompany this communication, and which in 
exhibiting the prominent features of the country, and general 
direction of the line, will be found suflSciently full and accurate 
to illustrate what I have to say. 

" Many lines of explorations through the wilderness country, 
from our inhabited frontier to the Pacific Ocean, have conclu- 
sivelj' satisfied me that the region or belt of country, lying 
between the 38th and 39th parallels of latitude, offer singular 
facilities and extraordinary comparative advantages for the con- 
struction of the proposed road. 

" I propose, therefore, to occupy your attention solely with this 
line ; for the clearer understanding of which, it will aid to keep 
under the eye the accompanying map, upon which the unbroken 
red lines are intended to show that the regions which they tra- 
verse have been already explored, while the broken red lines 
what is known only from reliable information. 

"The country to be traversed by .the proposed road exhibits 
but two great features — the prairies reaching to about the 105th 
degree of longtitude ; and the mountains, with which it is brist- 
ling from that point to the shores of the Pacific ocean. Some years 
of travel among these mountains, during which I was occupied 
principally in searching for convenient passes and good lines of 
communication, gradually led me to comprehend their structure, 
and to understand that among this extended mass of mountains 
there is nowhere to be found a great continuous range having 
an unbroken crest, where passes are only to be found in the 
comparatively small depressions of the summit line. Throughout 
this great extent of country stretching in each way about 17 
degrees, all these apparently continuous ranges are composed of 
lengthened blocks of mountains, separate and detached of greater 
or less length, according to the magnitude of the chain which 
they compose — each one possessing its separate, noted, and jjro- 
minent peaks, and lying parallel to each other, though not usually 
so to the general direction of the range, but in many cases lying 



THE PACIFIC KAILKOAD. 401 

diagonally across it. Springing suddenly up from the general 
level of the country, sometimes rising into bare and rocky sum- 
mits, of great height, they leave openings through the range but 
little above the general level, and by which they can be passed 
■without climbing a mountain. Generally these openings are 
wooded valleys, where the mountain springs from either side 
collect together, forming often the main branches of some 
mighty stream. Aggregated together in this way, they go to 
form the great chain of the Rocky Mountains and Sierra 
Nevadas as well as the smaller and secondary ranges which 
occupy the intervening space. With the gradual discovery of 
this system, I became satisfied, not only of the entire practica- 
bility, but of the easy construction of a railroad across this 
rugged region. As this peculiarity forms the basis of my infor- 
mation, I desire to state it clearly at the outset, in order that I 
may be more readily understood in proceeding to show that this 
continent can be crossed from the Mississippi to the Pacific, 
without climbing a mountain, and on the very line which ev.ery 
national consideration would require to connect the great valley 
of the West with the Pacific Ocean. 

" In describing the belt of country through which the road 
should pass, it will be found convenient to divide the entire line 
into three parts — the Eastern, reaching from the mouth of the 
Kansas to the head of the Del Norte ; the Middle, from the head 
of the Del Norte to the river of the Great Basin ; and the West- 
ern, from the n.of the Great Basin to the ocean. Beginning 
near the 39th parallel of latitude, at the mouth of the Kansas, 
the road would extend along the valley of that river some three or 
four hundred miles, traversing a beautiful and wooded country 
of great fertiUty, well adapted to settlement and cultivation. 
From the upper waters of the Kansas, falling easily over into the 
valley of Arkansas, the road strikes that river about a hundred 
miles below the foot of the mountains, continuing up it only to 
the mouth of the Huerfeno River. From this point the prairie 
plains sweep directly up to the mountains, which dominate them 
as hiffhlands to the ocean. 



4:02 LIFE AND 6ERVICE8 OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

" The Huerfano is one of the upper branches of the Arkansas 
and following the lines of this stream the road would here enter 
into a country magnificently beautiful — timbered, having many 
bays or valleys of great fertility ; having a mild and beautiful 
climate ; having throughout the valley country short winters, 
which spend their force in the elevated regions of the mountains. 
The range of mountains in which this stream finds its head 
springs is distinguished by having its summits almost constantly 
enveloped in clouds of rain or snow, from which it obtains its 
name of Sierra Mojada, or Wet Mountain. This chain is remark- 
able among the Rocky Mountain ranges for the singular grandeur 
of its winter scenery, which has been characterized by travellers 
who have seen both as unsurpassed either in the Alps or the 
Himalayas. Their naked rocky summits are grouped into 
numerous peaks, which rise from the midst of black piny forests, 
whence issue many small streams to the valley below. 

" Following by an open wagon way the valley of the Huerfano, 
the road reaches the immediate foot of the mountain at the 
entrance of a remarkable pass, almost everywhere surrounded by 
bold rocky mountain masses. From one foot of the mountain to 
the other, the pass is about five miles long ; a level valley from 
two to four hundred yards wide, the Mountains rising abruptly 
on either side. With scarcely a distinguishable rise from the 
river plains, the road here passes directly through or between 
the mountains, emerging in the open valley of Del Norte, here 
some forty or fifty miles broad or more properly a continuation 
northward of the valley in which the Del Norte runs. Crossing 
the flat country, or opening between the mountains, and en- 
countering no water course in its way, the road would reach the 
entrance of a pass in the Colorado Mountams, familiarly known 
to the New Mexicans and Indian traders, who are accustomed to 
traverse it at all seasons of the year, and who represent it as con- 
ducting to the waters of the Colorada River throuffh a handsome 
rolling grass-covered country, aftbrding practical wagon routes. 

" Of this section of the route, so far as the entrance of this 



PACIFIO RAILEOAD. 403 

pass, covering twelve degrees of longtitude, I am able to speak 
from actual exploration, and to say that the line described is not 
only practicable, but affords many singular facilities for the 
construction of a railway, and offers many advantages in the 
fertile and wooded country through which it lies in the greater 
part of its course. 

" In the whole distance there is not an elevation worthy of the 
name, to be surmounted ; and a level of about 8,000 feet is 
gained almost without perceptible asceat. Upon the Kansas 
and Huerfano River valleys, the country is woodeu and watered : 
the valley of the Del Norte is open, but wood is abundant in 
the neighboring mountains, and land fit for cultivation is found 
almost continuously along the water courses, from the mouth 
of the Kansas to the head of the valley of the Del Norte. 

"A journey undertaken in the winter of 1848-49 (and inter- 
rupted here by entering more to the southward the rugged 
mountains of St. John's, one of the most impracticable on the 
continent), was intended to make a correct examination of this 
pass aud the country beyond to the rim of the Great Basin. 
The failure of this expedition leaves only for this middle posi- 
tion of our line such knowledge as we have been able to obtain 
from trappers and Indian traders. The information thus 
obtained had led me to attempt its exploration, as all accounts 
concurred in representing it practicable for a road, and these 
accounts were considered sufficiently reliable. 

" According to this information, the same structure of the 
country to which I have called your attention above, as forming 
a system among the mountains, holds good here ; and I accord- 
ingly found no diflSculty in believing that the road would readily 
avoid any obstacles which might be presented in the shape of 
mountain ranges, and easily reach the basin. In pronouncing 
upon the practicability of a road through this section, I proceed 
therefore upon my general knowledge of the face of the country, 
upon information received from hunters and residents in New 
Mexico, and upon the established fact that it has not only been 



404: LIFE AND SEEVICE8 OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

travelled, but at all seasons of the year, and is one of the travel- 
ling routes from New Mexico to California. 

" The third section of the map is from the Wahsatch Moun- 
tain to the Sierra Nevada, and thence to the Bay of San Fran- 
cisco. This route traverses the Great Basin, presenting three 
different lines, which you will find indicated on the map. 
Kepeated journeys have given me more or less knowledge of the 
country along these lines, and I consider all of them practicable, 
although the question of preference remains to be settled. The 
northern line is that of the Humboldt River, which although 
deflecting from the direct course of the bay, commands in its 
approach to the mountains several practicable passes, the lowest 
of which is 4,500 feet above the sea. The southern line, which 
in crossing the Basin has not the same freedom from obstruction 
enjoyed by the open river line of the North, is still entirely prac- 
ticable, and possesses the advantage of crossing the Sierra 
Nevada at a remarkably low depression, called Walker's Pass, 
more commonly known as the Point of the Mountains, and being 
in fact, a termination of one of the mountains which go to form 
that chain. 

" This pass is near the 35th degree of latitude, and near the 
head of the beautiful and fertile valley San Joaquin, which the 
road thence would follow down to its junction with the Sacra- 
mento, or to some point on the bay. This route deflects to the 
south about as much as the other does to the north, but secures 
a good way, and finds no obstacle from the Sierra, turning that 
mountain where is has sunk down nearly to the level of the 
country. Among the recent proceedings of the California 
legislature, resolutions were introduced in favor of beginning in 
the railway at that pass. 

" The third line, which is the middle and direct line, and that 
to which I give a decided preference, is less known to me than 
either of the others : but I believe fully in its practicability, and 
only see the principal obstacle to be overcome is the Great Sierra 
itself, which it would strike near its centre. That obstacle is 



PACIFIC KAILROAD. 405 

not considered insurmountable, nor in the present state of rail- 
way science, suflBcient to turn us from the direct route. A pass 
is known as indicated by the line upon the map, which labor 
would render practicable. Other passes are also known to the 
north and south, and if tunneling became necessary, the struc- 
ture of the mountains is such as to allow tunnels to be used with 
the greatest advantage. Narrow places are presented where 
opposite gorges approach each other, and a wall of some two or 
three thousand feet often separates points which may not be 
more than a quarter of a mile apart at its base. It will also bo 
remembered that the Great Basin east of the Sierra Nevada, has 
a general elevation of over 4,000 feet, so that the mountains 
would be approached on the east at that elevation ; on the west 
the slope is wide, though descending too near the level of the 
tide water. 

" The foregoing remarks embody all the general information 
I am now able to give upon this line. The first section of it, 
from the Missouri frontier to the head of the Del Norte is 
explored, and needs no further reconnoissances. It is ready for 
the location of the road by a practical engineer. The second 
and third sections require further explorations, to determine, not 
upon practicability, but upon the preference due to one over the 
others. 

" A party of 300 men, skillfully directed, with the assistance of 
three or four practical road engineers, would be sufiicient to 
lay out the whole routes, and clear and open a common road in 
the course of next spring and summer, so as to be passable for 
wagons and carriages, and as rapidly traversed as any of the 
common roads in the United States, 

" The obstacles I have not mentioned are the winter impedi- 
ments of snows, and the temporary one from the hostility of the 
Indians. The latter can be surmounted by military statioiis 
sending out military patrols to clear and scout the line. The 
snows are less formidable than would be supposed, from the 
great elevation of the central part of the route. They are dry^ 



406 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FKEMONT. 

and therefore more readily passed through ; are thin in the 
valleys, and remain only during a very brief winter. The winter 
of my last expedition was one of unprecedentedly deep and early 
snows, yet in the valley of the Kansas and Arkansas it was thin ; 
in the valley of Huerfano, none ; and in the vail ey of Del Norte 
the snow was only three feet deep ; the thermometer at zero near 
midday. 

"Th^^eather in these high mountains and deep valleys is of a 
character adapted to such localities — extremely cold on the 
mountains, while temperate in the valleys. I have seen it storm- 
ing for days together on the mountains in a way to be destruc- 
tive to all animal life exposed to it, while in the valley, there 
would be a pleasant sunshine, and the animals feeding on 
nutritious grass. Beyond the Rocky Mountains, the cold is less* 
and the snows become a less and more transient obstacle. These 
are my views of a route for the road or roads (a common one is 
first wanted), from the Mississippi to the Pacific. It fulfills, in 
my opinion, all the conditions for a route for a national 
thoroughfare. 

" 1st. It is direct. The course is almost a straight line. St. 
Louis is between 38, 39; San Francisco is about the same; the 
route is between these parallels, or nearly between them, the 
whole way. 

"2nd. It is central to territory. It is through the territorial 
centre west of the Mississippi, and its prolongation to the Atlan- 
tic ocean would be central to the States east of that river. 
It is also central to business and population, and unites the 
greatest commercial point in the valley of the Mississippi with 
the greatest commercial point on the coast of the Pacific. 

"3rd. It combines the advantages for making and preserving 
the road, wood, water, and soil, for inhabitation and cultivation. 

"4th. It is a healthy route. No diseases of any kind upon 
it; and the valetudinarian might travel it in his own vehicle, on 
horse, or even on foot, for the mere restoration of health and 
recovery of spirits. 



PACIFIC BAILROAD. 40? 

" It not only fulfills all the conditions of a national route, but 
jit is preferable to any other. It is preferable to the South 
Pass fr^i being nearly four degrees further south, more free 
from open plains, and from the crossing of great rivers. Its 
course is parallel with the rivers, there being but one (the 
Upper Colorado), directly crossing its line. There are passes at 
the head of Arkansas, in the Three Parks, and north of them, 
but none equal to this by the Rio del Norte. There is no route 
north of it that is comparable to it; I believe there is no prac- 
ticable route south of it in the" United States. The disaster 
which turned me south from the head of the Del Norte and sent 
me down that river, and to the mountains around to the Upper 
Gila, enabled me to satisfy myself on that point. 

"I went a middle route — a new way — between the Gila River 
and the wagon-road through the Mexican province of Sonora 
and am satisfied that no route for a road can be had on that 
line, except going through Mexico, then crossing the Great 
Colorado of the West, near the mouth of the Gila, to cross the 
desert to arrive at San Diego, and still be six hundred miles by 
land, and three or four hundred by water, from the Bay of San 
Francisco, which now is and forever must be, the great centre 
of commerce, wealth and power on the American coast of the 
Pacific Ocean. 

"In conclusion, I have to say that I believe in the practicabil- 
ity of this work, and that every national consideration requires 
it to be done, and to be done at once, and as a national work by 
the United States. 

"Your obliged fellow-citizen, 

"J. C. Fremont." 



4:08 LIFE AND BEKVIOES OF JOHN 0. FKEMONT. 



CHAPTER XYL 

FKEMONt's OAKEER as united STA.TE8 SENATOR SPEECH 

ON THE INDIAN AGENCY BILL SPEECH ON THE BILL 

MAKING TEMPORARY PROVISIONS FOR WORKING THE 
MINES OF CALIFORNIA — CHALLENGES SENATOR FOOTE— 

FOOTe's RETRACTION FREMONt's LETTER ABOUT THE 

AFFAIR. 

The long and anxious struggle which resulted in the 
admission of California into the Union, as an indepen- 
dent State, with a constitutional provision against slavery, 
is familiar to the country. The legislation upon the 
subject was consummated on the 9th of September, 
1850. On the following day, the Californian senators 
presented themselves for admission to their seats. 
Colonel Fremont's credentials were submitted by Sena- 
tor Barnwell of South Carolina, who remarked in doing 
so, that " it was well known he entertained- the strongest 
constitutional objections to the admission of California 
into the Union, but Congress having passed an act for 
her admission, Mr. Fremont's admission could not be 
otherwise than very acceptable." Jefferson Davis, a 
senator from Mississippi, moved a reference of the cre- 
dentials to a committee, on the ground " that the consti- 
tutional provisions for the election of senators could not 



UNITED STATES SENATOR. 400 

have been complied with." Senators Mason of Yirginia, 
Butler of South Carolina, and Turney of Tennessee, also 
favored the reference. Senators Clay of Kentucky, and 
Foote of Mississippi opposed the reference, which was 
defeated by a vote of 36 to 12. 

The new senators were then sworn in, and imme- 
diately after, the Senate proceeded to ascertain by lot 
the class or length of senatorial term of the respective 
candidates. The shortest term, expiring on the 3d day 
of March, 1851, was drawn by Colonel Fremont. But 
three weeks remained of the session within which to 
accomplish anything for California. No time was to 
be lost, therefore, in doing what had to be done. On 
the day after he became entitled to his seat, he offered 
a resolution instructing the post-office committee to 
inquire into and report upon the expediency of estab- 
lishing seventeen post routes in California, each des- 
cribed in the resolution, which was considered by 
unanimous consent, and agreed to. He, at the same 
time, gave notice of his intention on the following or 
some subsequent day, to ask leave to introduce a series 
of bills, designed to complete the political organization 
of California. The titles of those bills show their scope, 
and tlie statesmanlike views he took of the politi- 
cal needs of the young and as yet governraentless 
State wliich he represented.* 

*" 1. A bill to provide for the recording of land titles in California. 

" 2. A bill to provide for the survey of the public lands of California. 

" 3. A bill to provide for the erection of land offices in Calilbruia. 

" 4. A bill to provide for the settlement r[ private land claims in Call 
fornia. 

" f). A bill to grant donations of land to settlers before the cession of 
tlie country to the United States, and pre-emption rights to all suba©* 
ijucat settlers. 

18 



410 LIFE AOTD SERVICES OF JOHK 0. FREMONT. 

On the 14th of September he had leave to introduce 
a bill to make temporary provisions for the working 
and discovery of gold mines and placers in California, 
and for preserving order in the gold mine district. The 
bill, he stated, had been drawn up with great care ; he 
had reviewed the Spanish laws, extending over a space 
of three hundred years, and had endeavored to embodj 
in the bill all that he considered applicable to our age 
and institutions. 

On the same day, the bill authorizing the President 
to appoint Indian agents in California being under con- 
sideration, Senator Atchison, from the Committee on 
Indian Aflairs, stated that he was entirely unable to 
communicate to the Senate the information that they 
would probably require. Tlie committee, he said, did 
not know the number of tribes of Indians, nor the num- 

" 6. A bill to regulate the working of mines in California. 

" 7. A bill to extend the laws and judicial system of the United States 
to the State of California. 

" 8. A bill to refund to said State duties collected at San Francisco and 
other ports, before the custom-house laws were extended to it. 

" 9. A bill to grant said State public lands for purposes of education. 

" 10. A bill to grant six townships for a university. 

"11. A bill to grant land to aid in constructing public buildings. 

"12. A bill to grant land for asylums for the deaf and dumb, for tho 
blind and insane. 

" 13. A bill to relinquish to the city of San Francisco certain public 
grounds no longer needed for public purposes. _ 

" 14. A bill to grant to the State of Cahfornia twelve salt springs, with 
a section of ground around each. 

"15. A bill to grant to the city of Monterey the old government house 
and its grounds. 

"16. A bill to provide for opening a road across the continent. 

" 17. A bill to grant land for internal improvement. 

"18. A bill to preserve peace among the Indian tribes, by providing 
for the extinction of their titles to the gold districts." 



UNITED STATES SENATOR. 4.11 

ber of Indians within the State of California, nor the 
kind of title by which they lield their lands; he there- 
fore referred the Senate for further information, to the 
senators from California.. 

AVhereupon Col. Fremont proceeded to state his 
reasons for introducing the bill, as follows : 



SPEECH 01" COL. FREMONT IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE, ON THE INDIAN 
AGENT BILL. 

" The general policy of Spain in her Indian relations, was the same as 
that which was afterwards adopted by all Europe, and recognized by the 
United States. The Indian right of occupation was respected, but the 
ultimate dominion remained in the Crown. Wherever the policy of Spain 
differed from that of the other European nations, it was always in favoi 
of Indians. Grants of land were always made subject to their rights of 
occupancy, reserving to them the right to resume it, even in cases where 
it had been abandoned at the time of the grant. But the Indian right to 
the lands in property, under the Spanish laws, consisted not merely in 
possession, but extended even to that of alienation ; a right recognized 
and affirmed in the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States. 
A claim to lands in East Florida, under a title derived from grants by the 
Creek and Seminole Indians, and ratified by the local authorities of Spain 
before the cession of Florida to the United States, was confirmed. 

*' I have here in my hand a volume of Spanish laws, published in the 
city of Mexico in 1849, and purporting to contain all the legislation on 
this subject, which was in force in Mexico up to that date. These laws 
extend from 1533, some twelve years after the conquest of Mexico by 
Cortez, to 1817. The policy of Spain in regard to the Indians differed 
somewhat from that of the United States, and particularly in this : that, 
instead of removing the Indians from amidst the Spanish population, 
it kept them there and protected them in the possession of their lauds 
among their civilized neighbors ; having always in view the leading object 
of converting them to the Christian religion. To this end the power of 
the government was ahvaysdirected ; it was a national object, and in 
great part was a governing principle in the laws of which they were the 
subject. 1 will not occupy the time of the Senate by reading at length the 
several laws, but will merely make a few statements of such particular 
parts as bear directly upon the rights in question. 



412 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FR I.MONT. 

" A royal order of Charles V. (a supreme law in Spain), of the year 
1533, decreed that the woods, pasture kinds, and water contained in anv 
grants of seigniories, which had been or should be made in the Indies, 
should be common to Spaniards and Indians. Another royal order of 
1687 (confirming and extending an ordinance of the viceroy, Count Saint 
Stephen, of the year 1567) commanded that in all the villages of the 
Indians throughout all Xew Spain, who needed land to live upon and sow, 
there should be given to them a space of 500 yards, and as much more 
as they had any need of for cultivation around their village, measuring 
from the furthest outside house, and if the village happened to be a largo 
one an unhmited quantity should be allowed, and that thereafter no grant 
of pasture ground or land should be given to any one within eleven 
hundred yards of the most outside house of the population. 

"A law of PhiUp III. of 1618, ordained that no pasture grounds of 
black cattle should be situated within a league and a half of any village 
converted in old times of the Christian religion, and not within three 
leagues of any villages of newly converted Indians, upon pain of forfeit- 
ing the pasture ground and half the cattle which there should be upon it, 
and the Indians had the right to kill any cattle which should be so found 
trespassing upon their lands, and were subject to no penalty whatsoever 
from them. 

"A decree of Philip IV. ordained that the sale, improvement and 
location of lands, should be made with such attention to the Indians, that 
they should be left with a superfluity beyond all the lands which might 
belong to them, as well individually aa in communities, together with 
waters and water privileges, and the lands upon which they might have 
made canals for irrigation, or any other improvements, should be reserved 
to them in the first place, and in no case were they to be sold or alienated 
from them. 

" The Spanish law hkewise recognizes the Indian right lo alienate, and 
prescribed the terms and mode in which such alienation shall be legal. A 
decree of Phihp II. of 1571, commanded that the Indians should have 
the right to alienate their landed property as well as their personal effects, 
prescribing only that proclamation should be made during a specified 
time, and at a place of public sale. We have here a circular of the royal 
audience of Guadalajara of 1817, reviving for information, and to correct 
abuses, a decree of one of the superior tribunals of Mexico, which 
annulled a sale of the rancho of Teiia Baiica, made by the Indians of 
Colchis, for a failure to comply with the forms prescribed by law. In 
California we have both classes of Indian.s — the Christian or converted 
Indians, collected together at the missions and in large villages at the sea- 



UNITED STATES SENATOR. 413 

coast and tlie interior, and the wild Indians of the mountains who never 
were reduced to subjection. 

"The statements I have given, Mr. President, are sufficient to show 
that the Spanish law clearly and absolutely secured to Indians fixed 
rights of property in the lauds- they occupy, beyond what is admitted U^ 
this government in its relations with its own domestic tribe.'', and that 
some particular provision will be necessary in order to divest them of 
these rights. In California we are at this moment invading these rights. 
"We lived there by the strong hand alone. The Indians dispute our rights 
to be there, and they extend the privilege which the law secured them 
of Iviiling the cattle to that of Ivilling the owner whenever they find an . 
occasion. Our occupation is in conflict with them, and it is to render 
this occupation legal and equitable, and to preserve the peace, that I have 
introduced this bill. It recommends itself to the favorable consideration 
of the Senate by its obvious necessity, and because it is right in itself, 
because it is politic, and because it is conformable to the established 
custom of this government. 

At the end of the debate the bill was reported to the 
Senate, and ordered to be engrossed for a third reading. 

On the 25th, the bill making temporary provision for 
working the California mines, being under considera- 
tion, Senator Felch of Michigan, moved a substitute as 
an amendment to the whole bill, and made a long 
8j)eech in its favor. 

Mr. Fremont answered him in the longest speech that 
he delivered during the session, and judged by its results 
one of the most effective, for it disposed of all opposition, 
and the bill passed the Senate unanimously. We give 
the speech entire : 

" The very advanced period of the session when we obtained our seats 
and were able to bring forward the Cahfornia business, induced me to 
take a course in relation to our bills which I thought most agreeable to 
the Senate and best suited to secure for them a favorable consideration. 
This was not to use the indulgence of the Senate for making speeches, but 
to confine myself to a brief exposition of the nature and principles of a 
bill when it should bo called up, and then to answer, as well as I couUl, 



414 LIFE Aim SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

the inquiries and objections of senators either to principles or details. But 
I find such a course difficult on this bill, which introduces a new subject, 
aud one which, from its novelty and importance, excites, and ought to 
excite, much intei-est, and requires dose examination. The principles of 
^is bill, as I have already stated them, are to exclude all idea of making 
a national revenue out of those mines, to prevent the possibility of mon- 
opolies by moneyed capitahsts, and to give to natcual capital, that is 
to say, LABOR and industry, a fair chance to work, and the secure enjoy- 
ment of what they find. To carry out these principles to their just 
results, all the details of the bill are carefully directed. 

"The senator from Michigan (Mr. Felch) who has made the motion to 
strike out the whole bill, and to insert a substitute, does not object to the 
principles, but on the contrary, supports them, and objects only to 
details. Adopting the principles of the bill aud its leading provisions, 
he objects to the machinery as we may call it, of executing the system ; 
objects to the agents, to the permits, and of course to the sn)all sum 
which is to be paid for the permit. lie would seem to leave the law to ex- 
ecute itself; that is to say, leave every man to act for himself under the 
law. If the honorable senator were as familiar with the workings of 
things in California as we who have drawn up the bill, for which he 
proposes his substitute, I believe he would never have introduced such a 
proposition. It would never work well anywhere, but would throw every- 
thing into disorder and confusion, and make every man judge and jury 
in his own case. Laws must have officers to execute them, and I think 
none could be more cheap, convenient, and suitable to the people thau 
Buch as this bill provides. In the first place, there are agents, who 
are to reside each in a gold-mine district, grant the permits to applicants, 
visit the mines, and with a jury of six disinterested men, settle all dis- 
putes equitably and promptly, and without the delay and expense of a 
resort to a court of justice for every little question which grows up aiuong 
the miners. To see that the agents are faithful and attentive, a super- 
intendent of gold-mines is created, whose business it is to superin- 
tend all the agents, examine their books and accounts, hear complaints 
against them, take appeals from their decisions, and suspend them and 
appoint others in case of misconduct. The superintendent is thus armed 
with strong power, not over the miners, but over the agents, and for the 
benefit of the miners. It was considered necessary to have this strong, 
controlling power present with the agents and the miners, that all possi- 
ble attention should be paid for the faithful execution of the act, and the 
immediate redress of all wrongs. The superintendent is necessary to give 
regularity to the operation of the agents, to hold them all accountable and 



UNITED STATES SENATOR. 415 

to be the head of the system. To accomplish these purposes, au autho- 
rity upon the spot is indispensable. The gorges of the Sierra Nevada are 
too remote from the metropolitan government — the President is too far 
off to observe the conduct of agents, to hear complaints, redress wrongs, 
or dismiss the unfaithful. It would be equivalent to no redress for inju- 
ries, if a miner who is wronged is obliged to send his complaint to Wash- 
ington City, and prove it up at that distance from the scene of his com- 
plaint. 

" The quantity allowed to each person is ample considering the privi- 
lege he has of changing his location as often as he pleases, and selling his 
lot when he is offered a good price. Thirty feet square is to be the size 
of a lot, to be worked by manual labor, in a placer ; two hundred and ten 
feet, or about one acre, is to be the size of a lot in a mine to be worlied 
by machinery, in the rock. 

" A placer lot, accordingly, contains nine hundred superficial feet, with 
a depth to the centre of the earth. A cube of these dimensions would 
be twenty-seven thousand solid feet ; aud if a placer of tolerable richness 
is found, an industrious man might say his fortune is made. Sooner or 
later every industrious man may expect to find a good lot, and whether 
he sells it or works it, his reward will be ample. 

"If he sells, he may take another permit, and work on until he 
makes another good discovery, and either sells that or exhausts it ; and 
60 on, until he is satisfied, or the mining is exhausted. Wherever he 
may plant his stake, exclusive possession is guaranted to the miner, so 
long as he works his mining lot, or to his assignee, if sold, or to his 
legal representatives, in the event of his death. All that he finds is to be 
his own — there is no tax to be paid ; no per centum— no fifth, or tenth 
or twentieth to the government ; no ofiicer to stand over the miner and 
require him to give an account of all he finds, and surrender up a part to 
the federal government — all is his own that he has the industry to col- 
lect ; and for these multiplied advantages, with the protection of law and 
the security of order, the citizen pays only one dollar a month for as 
many months as he may choose, not exceeding twelve, with a pre-emptive 
right to continue his own lot. This nominal sum of one dollar a mouth 
is all that the bill proposes for him to pay ; and while it will be sufficient 
to indemnify the government for all expenses, and to yield a respectable 
sum besides, it will be no burden on the mio.ejt.-i he will not feel it, but 
will pay it cheerfully in return for the advantages which the permit 
secures him. 

*' Under this system every industrious man — every one who has 
courage to persevere, to try in new places until fortune favors him— will 



416 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

feel assured that his fortune is in his own hands. For the more extended 
and regular operations by machinery, the dimensions of the parcel of 
mining ground fixed by this bill, are 210 feet square, or about one acre. 
In a mineral country, reputed to be of such extraordinary ricliness, their 
dimensions wore cousidercd^abundantly large for the mine itself, and suffi- 
ciently so to aflbrd room for temporary buildings in the beginning of ope- 
rations. Hereafter, when the mineral district shall be better known, and 
the locahty of the lodes or veins precisely marlied out, larger contiguous 
spaces m;iY be granted to miners for the construction of the buildings 
absolutely necessary for extensive works. In the meantime, it should be 
remembered that these veins will occur in tracts of ground rich in loose 
gold, and that all the advantages attending a permit to work a placer, 
apply to the permit to work a mine, of which the superficial contents are 
about 44,000 feet, and thirty feet depth, of which would be one million 
three hundred and twenty thousand solid feet. The dimensions of a lot 
of mining ground are therefore about fifty times greater than those of a 
placer's lot. For these great advantages we propose that the govern- 
ment should ask only twenty-five dollars a month, one dollar a month 
being the sum fixed for a placer permit, and the permit for a mine is 
therefore only half that for a placer, fifty to one being the proportion 
between them. 

"The bill contains beneficial provisions in favor of first discoverers: 
they are to have double quantity, without the payment of any fee, and 
with the privilege of a pre-emptive right. These privileges have been 
recognized as just and politic under the laws of every mining nation- 
Under the regulations of the new code, Spain granted to a discoverer as 
many mining lots as he chose to stake out upon the vein, and under the 
mining ordinances of New Spain several such lots were granted to tl;« 
discoverer, and upon as many veins as he might discover in an entirely 
new mineral ridge. It is only a proper reward to an industrious di;;- 
coverer, and an inducement to prosecute researches which result in great 
benefit to the country. The discoverer of a new placer, or of a new 
mine, therefore, will have a full reward for his enterprise, and his expen- 
diture in time and money. 

" Five per centum of the proceeds from the sale of the permits is to go 
to the State of California for the purposes of internal improvement. 
This is upon the principle of the sale of the public lands. When sold by 
the United States, five per centum Ms paid to the State for that purpose. 
In this case the mines are to be worked out before the land is sold, and a 
considerable amount received, even at the low rates proposed. A 
hundred thousand permits would bring above a miUion and a quaa'ter jier 



fxnrn states sexator. 417 

annum. Fire per centum upot one million would be $50,000 per 
annum to the State — a sum which could be beneficially expended in 
opening communications through the country. 

" The system is temporary, and is to continue only until superseded 
by a better. I am doubtful if. a better one will be found, and think 
rather that it will continue until the placers are exhausted ; when the 
gold region can very properly be sold as other lands. The mode of 
taklag effect of this system is equitable and proper, going into effect, 
when the agent arrives into a district and promulgates the law. In the 
meantime there is no prohibition to work, but every man works on, and 
holds a preemptive right to the lot which he occupies. In this way the law 
would go into effect, without any interruption to the work which is going 
on, or without any shock to existing operations, and without retroactive 
operations upon anything that has been done. In fact all the details of 
the bill are carefully calculated to carry out its great leading principle — • 
that of giving to labor and industry a fair chance, and to save the mines 
from becoming a monopoly either in the hands of the government to 
make revenue, or in the hands of moneyed capitalists to amass princely 
fortunes. I am glad to find that the Senate evinces no disposition to 
create revenue by having taxes on the gold mines of our State, and that 
the hberal principles of this bill, from the votes already taken, are likely 
to prevail in this chamber. 

"J think that this government should look for increase of revenues, to 
the expanded commerce which the discovery of these gold mines has 
created in the Pacific Ocean. 

" Oppressive taxes on the precious metals are well suited to a govern- 
ment like that of Spain, which derived one of its chief supports from its 
mines in New Spain, which constituted its mint ; which used the labor of 
the people only to create revenue ; which demanded from them the first 
fruits of the earth, and taxed everything which it did not monopolize, 
and everything in the same proportion — agricultural products as well r.s 
mines — a tenth of the whole and all to support the extravagant 
expenditures of its arbitrary monarchs. In consequence of these oppres- 
sive exactions, ninety-nine were ruined out of a hundred, who engaged 
in gold mining operations in her dependencies. But we have adopted a 
wiser course. Reason and experience teach us the folly as well as the 
injustice of attempting such exactions- from the people. We have 
Been their failure on a small scale on oix own lead-mine leasing, and we 
have before us the result of their operation under the elaborate system 
and arbitrary power of Spain, which, with all their extravagant taxes, 
yielded — in those years of which I have any account, and at a flourishing 

18* 



418 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

period of the mines — a revenue of only about $60,000 per annum from 
the gold mines of New Spain. Mexico found out the folly of this course 
and immediately after her independence in 1 831 abolished these multiplied 
taxes, and substituted for them all a simple duty of three per cent. 
Heavy taxes had almost destroyed this branch of her revenues, and 
liberal provisions were made to resuscitate it. The quicksilver mines 
were given to all who would work them, free of all tax and all kind of 
duty. Rewards of $25,000 each were decreed to the first four operators 
who should extract a certain quantity of the metal — the miners were 
exempted from all personal contributions and all military service — and 
all to restore what taxation had ruined. We cannot, certainly go back 
from what Mexico has done, and take up the abandoned system of old 
Spain ; and I trust that, while we repudiate taxation, we shall also avoid 
anarchy and disorder, and give to the country some such brief and simple 
code of regulations, as will secure to every man the peaceable exercise 
of his industry, and the possession and enjoyment of what he gains." 

" In conclusion, I trust that the substitute will be rejected and that 
the principles of the bill will remain as now fixed." 

During the brief period that the Senate remained in 
session after his admission to its deliberations, Colonel 
Eremont confined himself almost exclusively to Califor- 
nia business and to measures which, though of the 
greatest concern at that time to California have now lost 
mttch if not all of their public interest.* His speeches 

* During the brief period of Col. Fremont's attendance in the Senate, 
he gave two or three votes on questions relating to slavery which have far 
more interest now than when they were given. 

On the 12th of September, the second day after taking his seat, the 
bill to suppress the slave-trade in the District of Columbia being under 
consideration, Senator Seward, moved to strike out the whole bill from 
its enacting clause, and insert a provision for the aboUtion of Slavery in 
the District altogether. The amendment was rejected, as it was expected 
to be, the vote standing Yeas 5, Nays 45. Among the Nays with Col. 
Fremont were such Northern men as Roger S. Baldwin of Connecticut, 
John Davis of Massachusetts, Thomas Ewing of Ohio, IT. Hamlin of 
Maine, Truman Smith of Connecticut, and R. C. Winthrop of Massachu- 
«etts. They all thought, doubtless, that course was best adopted to secure 
the practical residt at which they aimed, the breaking up of the slave 



UNITED STATES SENATOK. 419 

though niimerons were always brief and in tlieir struc- 
ture almost exclusively expository. He was looked to 
as the final authority upon all questions of fact in rela- 
lion to the legislation required for California, and never 
rose without having something to say, and always sat 
down wlien he had said it. He displayed great clearness 
and precision of statement in the few forensic efforts 
which are reported,-and established a character for 
modesty, good sense and integrity among his associates 
in the Senate which has survived all the political dis- 
ruptions and alienations which have since overtaken 
the party with which he was acting. 

But one incident occurred to mar the entire harmony 
of his intercourse with his brother senators, and that 

pens and the slave auctions in the national capital — and oa the 16th of 
September the bill passed, Kremont and Dayton voting with all the 
Northern Senators in its favor — Atchison, Jeff. Davis, Butler, and their 
partisans in the negative. During the pendency of the bill for the sup- 
pression of the District slave-trade, several votes were taken which 
proved plainly enough Col. Fremont's deep and^ constant sympathy with 
the cause of freedom. On the 14th of September, an amendment was 
pending providing that if a free person should entice or induce a slave 
to run away, or should harbor any such, he should be immured in the 
District Penitentiary five years. The vote was a close one — Yeas 22, 
Nays 26. Fremont voted No. Among the Yeas were Barnwell and 
Butler of S. C, Dawson and Berrien of Ga. (the State in which Fremont 
was born), Jeff. Davis, Soule, Foote, Hunter and Mason of Va., W. R. 
King, Rusk and others. Among the Noes were Fremont and Dayton, 
Baldwin, Chase, John Davis, Ewing, Hale, Hamlin. Seward, Winthrop 
and others. On another amendment to authorize the Corporations of 
the District to prohibit free negroes within their limits, under penalty of 
imprisonment and fine; which also failed by Ayes 20, to Nays 28;. 
Atchison, Butler, Soule, Jeff. Davis and others in the affirmative ; Fre- 
mont'and Dayton, Hale, Chase and Seward were in the negative. 

Sept. 28, when Mason of Va. moved to strike out the clause in the 
Navy bill wh'ich abolished flogging in the navy. Col. Fremont was found 
TOting No, with Hale, Seward, Chase and other Northern men. 



420 LIFR AND SEKVICE8 OF JOHN C. FKKMONT. 

only served to increase the respect already entertained 
for his manly sensibilities. On the last night of the 
Bession, Senator Foote, of Mississippi, who came into 
the Senate somewhat excited, in the course of some 
remarks on the Naval Appropriation hill — it afterwards 
appeared as if he had not known precisely what bill he 
was speaking to — said in substance, or was understood 
to say, that the republic would be dishonored if a 
portion of the legislation which had been urged upon the 
Senate for California were consummated. Upon hearing 
these words, Col. Fremont left the Senate-chamber, and 
sent a messenger to say to Senator Foote, that he 
wished to speak with him. As soon as Foote had 
finished his speech, the message was delivered to 
him, and he stepped out to Col. Fremont, who then 
told him that he had sent for him to say that he had 
just used language in the Senate in reference to him- 
self, which a gentleman in his position could not use, 
and which was unworthy of a senator. Foote imme- 
diately struck at him with his fist, just grazing his face. 
On the instant, both parties were seized by the door- 
keepers and senators who had noticed Foote's departui-e 
from the Senate and suspected its cause, and thus a 
serious issue to the afiair was postponed, and, as it hap- 
pened, prevented. On the following day. Col. Fre- 
mont sent Foote a note by the hand of Governor Price, 
of New Jersey, demanding a retraction of his ofi:ensive 
imputations. Governor Price brought back a note 
from Foote, in which he stated that in wdiat he had 
said in the Senate, he had said nothing denunciatory of 
the bill supposed to have been referred to by him, or of 
those who introduced it. 

Mr. Fremont's friends esteemed this equivalent to a 



DIFFICULTY WITH SENATOK FOOTE. 421 

retraction of the offensive words, and on Monday fol- 
lowing — the note to Foote and his reply were delivered 
on Saturday — the following card appeared in the 
J^ational Intelligencer. 

A CARD. 

Washington, Sept. 28, 1850. 
The undersigned are authorized to state that the difficulty between 
the Hon. n. S. Foote, and the Hon. J. C. Fremont — growing out of cer- 
tain expressions used by the former in rekition to the California land-bill, 
in the Senate, last evening, has been adjusted satisfactorily and honorably 
to both those gentlemen. 

A. C. Dodge, 
Wm. M. Gwin, 
Henry H. Sibley, 
Rodman M. Price. 

It was the custom of certain senators at Washington 
then, as it is still, we believe, to keep one or two letter- 
writers to say what' they did not like to say them- 
selves — and at the time of which we are speaking, 
a correspondent of the JBaltimoi'e Sun stood in that 
relation with Senator Foote. In the fulfillment of his 
vocation, he took it upon himself to state in a letter 
written the very day the affair was adjusted, that Foote 
had made no retraction, and to censure Col. Fremont 
for attempting to prevent a free discussion of California 
measures. As Foote's letter of retraction had not been 
published, and the terms of the adjustment which had 
been pronounced honorable and satisfactory to both 
gentlemen were confidential, of course the /S't^w.'s version 
would be presumed, by the uninformed reader, to be 
correct, in the absence of any contradiction. Col. Fre- 
mont knew that this version of the settlement originated 
Avirh Foote. and immediately addressed the following 
letter to the editor of the Baltiinore Sim. 



422 LIFE AND PKRVICKS OF JOHN C. FRKMONT. 

Sir : Your paper of (his morning (Monday, Sept. 30th) contains a para- 
graph in a letter from this place, which it is obligatory on me to notice 
and in such clear language as I believe the circumstances justify me in 
Tising. It appears under the well-known signature X, and 1 believe it to 
have been written by Mr. Grund ; but the paragraph which concerns mo, 
I consider as the work of Mr. Foote himself, and shall accordingly treat 
him as the author. 

The following is the paragraph : 

" ' The difficulty between Senators Foote and Fremont has been amica- 
bly arranged, as you will have seen by the card of those gentlemen's 
friends in to-day's Union. This is as it should be. Mr. FiT^iiont was 
wrong to attack Mr. Foote for words spoken in debate, which, as he 
(Foote) distinctly avowed at the time in the Senate, were not spoken witli 
a view to wound the personal feelings of any senator present, l)ut nurely 
to protect the country against ex parte decisions of the California Board 
of Commissioners for the adjustment of land titles. All that Gen. Foote 
had observed was, that without Ewing's amendment, granting an appoid 
to the Supreme Court of the United States from the decision of the 
Board, he considered that the bill would disgrace the Republic, and that 
however inclined he was to support the bill roith the amcndiJicnt, he 
should assuredly vote against it without the amendment. Mr. Foote 
retracted nothing ; but distinctly avowed that he did not intend any 
personal disrespect for those who were against the amendment. Col. 
Fremont could not be satisfied with this explanation. As a sensible man, 
and a man of honor, he must have seen his mistake in attempting to gag 
senators in regard to all legislative acts relating to California, and in 
constituting himself the heir apparent of a family feud which, for the 
benefit of the whole country, had better be buried than renewed.' 

" This paragraph is false in many particulars, as I will endeavor briefly 
to show, but will first make a few remarks as to the authorship. When 
the friend whom I had sent to Mr. Foote on Saturday morning brought 
back his letter, and joined with other friends in saying it was sufBcient, 
and that I ought to be satisfied with it, and with the statement which had 
been agreed to be published, myself and others replied that this arrange- 
ment was not satisfactory, because the affair would not rest there, but 
that Mr. Foote was in communication with a letter writer, who wrote for 
him in the Baltimore Sun and Philadelphia Ledger, and that these two 
papers would soon contain untrue accounts of the affair to my prejudice, 
and which would compel me to take further notice of it. This was 
repeatedly and emphatically told to the gentleman ; but it was finally 
concluded to receive Mr. Foote's letter as satisfactory, and to watch for 
the letters in the Sun and Ledger. Accordingly, Monday morning's Sun 
brought the expected letter, which, as I have said above, I fully believe 



DrFFICULTT WITH SENATOR FOOTE. .423 

to be the work of Mr. Foote through Mr. Grund. The letter opens with 
saying, that the difficulties between Mr. Foote and Mr. Fremont have been 
very ' a??uVa6/y' arranged. This word '■amicably'' is false, as was well 
known to the writer. I merely received Mr. Foote's letter as satisfaction, 
and no tokens of amity were interchanged between us, not even speaking 
to each other. He comes then to the cause of the difficulty, all of which 
is falsely stated, and is so proved to be by the record. The letter says, 
'Mr. Fremont was wrong to attack Mr. Foote for words spoken in debate, 
which as he (Foote) distinctly avowed at the time, were not spoken with 
a view to wound the feelings of afty senator present, but merely to pro. 
tect the country against ex parte decisions of the California Board of 
Commissioners.' 

" This is untrue. The bill for the California land titles was not under 
consideration at the time, and had been previously laid upon the table, 
with my approbation, till the next session, with a view to give it the full 
consideration, for which there was now no time. Other measures had 
been taken up,, and the naval appropriation bill was then under discus- 
sion ; and it was on this bill — on the pretext of a motion from Mr. Gwin, 
having no relation to the land titles — that the words were spoken. It 
was not, therefore, to ' protect ' the country against any action under 
that bill that the injurious words were spoken, for the bill was not before 
the Senate, and had been laid over until the next session. 

" The letter says Mr. Foote retracted nothing. This is untrue, as will 
be seen by the copy of Mr. Foote's remarks, as furnished to me by the 
reporter for the hitelligencer, contrasted with his own letter to me ; both 
of which are herewith given in their order. And to avow no retraction, 
is to re-affirm the orginal insult, by an insidious implication. I make no 
account of difference between retraction and denial in this case. 

*' The letter says, ' Mr. Fremont must have seen his error in attempting 
to gag senators in regard to all legislative measures in relation to Califor- 
nia.' This is absurdly false — absurd in the idea that I should attempt to 
gag senators, and false in the fact. Much as the circumstances of the 
country required the bill to be passed to prevent violence and bloodshed 
in California, yet, when it was kept off until the afternoon of Friday, I 
gave it up for the session — said so, before the evening recess, to Messrs- 
Ewing and Benton, the two principal speakers on it — agreed to have it 
laid upon the table — and, satisfied that this would be done, did not return 
to the Senate until after the evening session had connnenced, and until 
after the bill had been laid upon the table ; and when I did come in, I 
was surprised to find Mr. Foote referring to the California land title bill, 
the naval appropriation bill being the one under consideration. It i8, 



4:24 LIFE AND 8KRVICKS OF JOHN C. FRKMONT. 

therefore, false, as well as ridiculous, to say that I attempted to gAg sena- 
tors ; I laid it over to the next session expressly to admit the fullest 
discussion, which is exactly the reverse of gagging.' 

" The Baltimore letter says, ' Mr. Foote did not intend to wound the 
feelings of any senator — but distinctly avowed at the time in tiie Senate, 
that lie did not intend any personal disrespect for those who were against 
the amendment.' Tliis is false again, and is proved to be so by all tht 
circumstances of the case, and by the words themselves. This is th( 
report of them, as furnished me by one of the National Intelligencer 
reporters : 

" ' We had some little admonition this morning at to the danger of 
hasty legislation in regard to California matters. Nevertheless, I say 
deliberately, I say it with due consideration of the matter and of the 
consequences of the declaration, that if the views which have been 
expressed in certain quarters this morning in regard to a portion of the 
legislation which is urged upon us for California, should be adopted in 
the same hasty manner in which it is now proposed to us to give our 
sanction to the present proposition, the admission of California into the 
Union would be productive of more detriment to the republic, and, in 
my opinion, be fraught with more real dishonor to the nation, than any 
event that lias ever occurred iu the historic annals of tlie country. Sir, 
we must be cautious about this California business. Not only is Califor- 
nia a State of this Union, but she is a great State. Her resources are 
large. Her interests are vast. They are of vast importance to herself 
and to the country at large. In dealing with them we must act cautious- 
ly, circumspectly, vigilantly, and permit no man, or set of men, to urge 
us hastily and indiscreetly into the adoption of any legislation for which, 
hereafter, we may have reason to repent in sackcloth and in ashes.' 

" Now, take this language, and see if there was not a design to be 
personal and insulting in it, and that upon a plan previously resolved 
upon. He avows dehberation — due consideration — disregard of conse- 
quences. What does this mean, but a pre-determined design to give 
both insult and defiance ? And in that light it would doubtless have 
been represented, if I had not called him to account. Then the terrible 
consequences of passing the bill, the dishonor to the nation, the corruj> 
tion, the repentance in sackcloth and ashes : what did all this refer to, 
but the bill which I had brought in ? And why refer to it at all, when it 
was not before the Senate, not under consideration — actually laid upon 
the table, to lie there until the next session? Why not wait till the next 
Bcssion, if he only wanted to speak against the bill ? Why refer to it at 
all, under such circumstances, unless for a purpose unconnected with the 
bill ? and in such language, except for insult ? It is useless to pretend 
the contrary ; and, therefore, the Baltimore letter is false in saying that 



DrPFICULTT WITH SENATOR FOOTE. 425 

Mr. Foote had no design to wound feelings — no intent to be disrespectful. 
The contrary was understood by every senator at the time, and is proved 
by the words themselves, and the circumstances under which they were 
spoken, and there is no disavowal, distinct or indistinct, of person:il disre- 
spect to anybody. 

" The Baltimore letter admonishes me not to make myself ' lieir ' to a 
family feud. The admonition would be unnecessary, even if it came from 
a source entitled to respect ; but, found where it is, it is both false and 
impertinent. I make myself ' heir ' to no one's feuds. I begin none of 
my own. I prefer to Uve in peace with the world. But everybody will 
see from the remarks of Mr. Foote in the Senate, in relation to the bill I 
brought in, and his letter to the Baltimore Sun, that it is intended to 
make me ' heir ' to his feeUngs towards Col. Benton. 

" I conclude this notice with giving Mr. Foote's letter to me, in answer 
to the note which I sent him by a friend : 

" ' Senate Chamber, Sept. 23, 1850. 

'"Sir: I do not feel that I shoiild be doing justice to myself, did I not, 
in writing, (as I thought I did very explicitly last niglit, orally), deny that 
I said anything denunciatory of the bill to which you refer, or of those 
who introduced it. I was in favor of Mr. Swing's amendment, and in 
favor of the bill itself, provided his amendment could be incorporated 
with it. This your colleague well knows. I said that certain views had 
been expressed in the course of debate upon that bill, and in support of 
it, that if sanctioned by Congress would disgrace the republic. What I 
meant was, that the establishment of a Board of Commissioners in Cali- 
fornia for the adjustment of land titles, without the privilege of appeal to 
the Supreme Court of the United States, would, in my opinion, result in 
scenes of corruption, and acts of injustice, which would be seriously 
derogatory to the national character. So I think yet, and so 1 shall 
always think and say. 

' " ' If, after this statement, you persevere in the demand contained in 
your note, I shall certainly gratify you, though I shall, from certain 
prudential considerations, defer a formal acceptance of your proposition 
until I can leave the District of Columbia. 

" ' Your obedient servant, 

'"H. S. FoOTE. 

" ' Hon. J. C. Fremont.' 

" This was the letter received. It contradicts the speech, denies the 
denunciation and insult which the speech contains, and is itself contra- 
dicted both by the actual words spoken in the Senate, and by the letter 
to the Baltimore Sun ; and, although both of these are themselves untrue, 
yet it is not for Mr. Foote to say so, or to impeach their competency to 
invalidate the other. All three of these documents are given, and those 



4.:av LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

wlio pl^ast! rnay compare them, and ao.e bow entirely they convict each 
other. The letter to me, and the statement published by friends, would 
have been a quietus to the affair with me, if it had not been for the 
Baltimore letter. The letter to nie, to be sure was untrue ; but that was 
not my affair, provided nothing more was written. But I expected 
more — expected letters injurious to me in the Baltimore Sun and the 
Philadelphia Ledger^ and so said at the time, and so the event has 
verified — and that has forced me to make this brief exposition of the 
threefold falsehoods of the premeditated attack upon me in the Senate, 
its denial in a letter to me, and its insidious implied repetition in the 
Baltimore Su7i, by asserting that he retracted nothing. 

"To put the whole case into three words, it is this; Mr. Foote went 
out of his way when the subject was not before the Senate, to deliver a 
deliberately considered insult and defiance to me — then denied the in- 
sult and defiance, and disclaimed all disrespect, in a letter to me — then 
re-affirmed, by inevitable implication, the same insult and defiance iu a 
letter to the Baltbnore iSun, denying all retraction. 

" With this summing up of the case and the precedent proofs, I leave 
the affair to the judgment of the public. 

(Signed) J. C. Fremont. 

" September 30, 1850." 

Senator Foote Ivis nevjer publicly, nor so far as we 
know, privately, denied his complicity with the anrlior of 
the letter to the Sun, nor did he ever in any way attempt 
to alter the position of the case as it was left by Col. 
Fremont's letter to the Baltimore journal. In a mo- 
ment of undue excitement he had done a wrong 
for which he was ashamed publicly to apologize. 
Then to get credit for a triumph which he was not 
entitled to, he gets another person to write what he 
knew was not true. When convicted of both oflences, 
he doubtless came to the conclusion that the most 
prudent course he could pursue towards Col. Fremont 
for the future, was to let him alone.* 

* The Albany Atlas, of that date, commenting upon this affair says: — 
" Senator Foote, of Mississippi, spent the closing hours of the Late ses- 



DIFFICTJLTT WITH 8ENAT0E FOOT. 427 

sion of Congress in penning a retraction to Senator Fremont for 
gratuitous insult rendered in debate. 

"It seems that he chose to attribute to corrupt private motives, the 
solicitude of Mr. Fremont to secure the passage of the California Mining 
Regulation bills. Called to account for such language, and stigmatized 
for its use, he resorted to a blow. Challenged, he had recourse to 
a letter of explanation and retraction. 

"This seems to be the tactics of the man — to give insult in public, and 
to make apologies for it in private. He threatened Mr. Hale, on his 
accession to the Senate, that if he should be caught in his State, he 
would be strung up to the first tree without law, and that he would assist 
in the execution ; but he apologized to the New Hampshire senator in 
private. He insulted Mr. Seward, if not as grossly, at least with as much 
malignancy ; but he deprecated the ill opinion of the New York senator, 
and privately cultivated a better acquaintance, as his guest, at frequent 
tea parties. He insulted Borland, of Arkansas, was knocked down in the 
street by him for it, and apologized — privately. He ' flared up ' at Clay 
and Calhoun in the Senate, to fawn upon them servilely afterwards. Mr. 
Benton was the only man upon whom he could not play this double game. 
He had eulogized him, in this city, as the superior of Cicero and of 
Burke, and as the greatest of statesmen. He maligned him after- 
wards, in the Senate like a common drab. Afraid to come near the great 
Missourian to apologize for insult, he kept himself privately armed, and 
once drew a pistol on bis adversary in the Senate, but retreated before 
the mere frown of an unarmed man. He ends where he began — in insult 
and retraction. 

"He doubtless expects that the fame of his public ruffianism will reach 
his State, and that the story of his pliancy will remain secret. This 
accounts for these alternations of bullying, hazarded in public, with mean 
compliances in private. 

" Possibly the retracting senator of the repudiating State, in this course 
but represents his constituency; but we wish, for the sake of the national 
decency, that Mississippi would carry her peculiar system of ethics a 
little further and retract or repudiate him." 



4:28 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

RETURN TO CALIFORNIA ILLNESS CANDIDATE FOR RE-ELEC- 
TION TO THE UNITED STATES SENATE GOES TO EUROPE- — 

PROJECTS HIS FIFTH AND LAST EXPLORING TOUR — HIS 

HARDSHIPS AND TRIUMPH LETTER FROM PARAWAN- - 

PRAIRIES ON FERE A CAKELESS SENTINEL HUERFANu 

BUTTE A CHEERLESS NIGHT FALL OF MULES DOWN THE 

MOUNTAINS ^THREATENED BY INDIANS HOW THEY WERi. 

REPELLED REDUCED TO EAT HORSE MEAT THEY SWEAR 

NOT TO EAT EACH OTHER FREEZING, DEATH, AND BURIAL 

OF FULLER DECLINES A PUBLIC DINNER IN SAN FRAN- 
CISCO RETURNS TO WASHINGTON. 

Col. Fremont left again for California by the steamer 
which sailed iirst after the adjournment of Congress. 
Upon leaving Panama he had another return of the 
Chagres fever, which was so obstinate and enfeebling 
that he was prevented from returning to Washington 
the following winter. Meantime the Pro-Slavery party, 
strengthened by all the influence of the Federal Admin- 
istration, had acquired such a controlling influence in 
California, tliat at the fall elections of 1851, the party 
which had advocated the proviso against Slavery in the 
State constitution, and with which Fremont was identi- 
fied, was no longer in the majority, and a combination 
was successfully made to prevent his re-election. Tho 



FUTH EXPEDITION. 429 

legislature weut into an election of his successor in Febru- 
ary, and after one hundred and forty-two ballotings, the 
convention adjourned until the 1st of January follow- 
ing, without making a choice. The candidates were 
Fremont, T, Butler King, Heydenfelr, Geary, Weller 
and Collier. 

The next two years Col. Fremont devoted mainly to 
his private affairs. He took the preliminary steps 
necessary to perfect his title to the Mariposas tract, 
which he also survej^ed and mapped ; resumed his old 
business of cattle-drover, and in these pursuits gradually 
repaired a portion of the losses which his private 
interests had sustained while attending to public duties. 

The negotiations to which his proprietorship of the 
Mariposas property gave rise took him to Europe in the 
spring of 1852, where he spent a year with his family, 
mostly in Paris, and where he had the satisfaction of 
observing that his fame had preceded him, and prepared 
for him an extremely flattering reception from several 
of the most eminent men of science and letters then 
living. 

At the close of the session of Congress in March, 1852, 
through the good management of Senator Chase, an ap- 
propriation was made for the survey of three routes to 
the Pacific ocean with the view of getting some further 
information as a basis of legislation for a national high- 
way between the Mississippi valley and the Pacilic 
Ocean. When Col. Fremont heard of this, he deter- 
mined to return, tit out an expedition on his own account, 
and complete the survey of the route which he had taken 
onhis last expedition, from the point where he was led 
astray by his guide, and which he believed he could 
prove to be quite the best, if not the only practicable 



430 LIFE AND 6EKVICE8 OF JOHN O. FREMONT. 

route for a national road. For this purpose he left Paris 
for the United States, in June, and in August, 1853, 
set out upon his fifth and last trans- continental expe- 
dition. 

Among the colonel's companions on this trip was 
S. N. Carvalho, Esq., of Baltimore, who went as the 
artist of the expedition. 

We have been permitted to inspect his journal and 
correspondence, in which he has preserved graphic 
memoranda of the most striking incidents of this most 
perilous and eventful journey. The following extracts 
are quoted from these records : 

EXTRACTS FROM THE JOURNAL AND LETTERS OF S. N. CARVALHO. 

J. 

" Westport, Kansas, Sept. I5th, 1853. — To-day Col. Fremont, Mr. 
Eglostein, Mr. Fuller and myself arrived at Westport from St. Louis. 
We found the rest of the expedition here with the baggage and pro- 
visions — Col. Fremont immediately selected a camp ground in a wood 
near town, and had all the material conveyed there. 

" 20th. — All hands slept in camp last night, and a storm of rain 
drenched us, giving the uninitiated an inkling of what they had to 
expect. During the day, diflerent lots of mules and horses have been 
brought in, from which Col. Fremont selected those he required. Holders 
of animals took advantage of our necessities and charged two prices, to 
which extortion we were obliged to submit. 

" The men have all been armed with rifles, Colt's six-shooters, sheath- 
knives, itc. ; and the baggage arranged ready for packing to-morrow, 
when we are to have a trial start. Col. Fremont to-day engaged ten 
Delaware Braves, to accompany the expedition, under charge of Captain 
Wolf, ' a big Indian.^ 

" They are to meet us on the Kansas River near a Potawatomie vil- 
lage. 

"2lst. — Branding the animals with Col. Fremont's mark having been 
completed, we packed our animals, mounted our men, and started in high 
spirits. We proceeded about four miles to the Methodist Mission, and 
camped. Finding several things more required we sent back to West- 
port for '• 1. My daguerreotype apparatus was unpacked, and views of 



FIFTH EXPEDITION. 43 i 

the Mission were mude ; all the arrangements I had made for taking pic- 
^res in the open air were perfectly successful. 

" 2'2d. — We made an early start this morning, our camp equipage being 
in complete order. Col. Fremont intends to accomplish the journey as 
speedily as possible across the continent on a proposed line of 38. lie 
supplied ihe expedition with the necessary provisions as well as luxuries, 
which the nature of the journey demanded, besides this seventy-two 
barrels of 'Aldcn's preserved milk, cream, cocoa, Java coffee,' and &c., 
were supplied by the manufacturer for testing the nutritive qualities and 
value during our voyage, from N. Y. I brought them into camp under 
my charge. These preparations alone were sufficient to sustain the lives 
of seventy men for a month. * An extra mule was purchased on purpose 
to convey them. 

" We camped at Shawnee Mission, some twelve or fifteen miles from 
our last camp. Colonel Fremont complains to-night of being indis- 
posed. 

" 23c?. — The illness of Fremont increasing, he has found it necessary to 
return to Westport for advice. lie left orders for the party to proceed 
and join iLe Delawares who were awaiting us, at the distance of three 
days' journey — when he expected to rejoin us. 

"To-day we met our brave Delawares, all armed and mounted; iiiore 
noble specimens of men in their natural state, do not exist anywhere. 
Our party proceeded and camped near the Potawatomies, where we 
remained several days. 

" Oct. 1st. — A messenger arrived with a letter from Colonel Fremont, 
informing us that his increasing illness forced him to return to St. Louis 
for advice. lie counselled us to proceed as far as Smoky Hills and 
encamp, where there was plenty of buffalo, and to send back ' Solomon,' 
the Indian chief, who had accompanied him iii a former voyage to West- 
port, to conduct him to camp. He thought he would be with us in a 
fortnight. This letter was addressed to Mr. W. H. Palmer, requesting 
him to take the direction of superintending the expedition during ' their 
encampment.^ We accordingly proceeded on the journey, under the 
guidance of Capt. Wolf and his Delawares, on the Gth October. We 
s*iw and killed our first buffaloes on the 7th. We encamped on the 
Saline fork of the Kansas River, better known -as ' Salt Creek,' where 
there was abundance of grass for our animals. 

'■'■'Kith. — * * * •» Q.jf Delawares brought into camp this even- 
an abundant supply of buffalo and antelope. The gentleman in charge 
of the commissariat iiuds great difficulty in preventing the muleteers and 
those whose duty it is to perform the manual labor of the camp, frosn 
consuming uuueoeesary qaantitiea of it. 



432 HFR AND BERVTCES OF JOHN C. FKEMONT. 

" The result is, that the stores which were intended to sustain us oo 
our journey are being wantonly and shamefully destroyed. 

Oct. 30th. During the day, the sun was completely obscured by low, daru 
clouds. The atmosphere was filled with a most disagreeable and suffocating 
smoke, which rolled over our heads. We were still encamped on the 
Saline fork of the Kansas River, impatiently awaiting the arrival of Col. 
Fremont, who had not yet returned from St. Louis. ■ His continued 
absence alarmed us for his safety, and the circumstance that the prairies 
had been on fire for several days past in the direction through which he 
must pass to reach us, added to our anxiety. Night came on, and the 
dark clouds, which overhung us like an immense pall, now assumed a 
horrible lurid glare all along the horizon. As far as the eye could reach, 
a belt of fire was visible. We were on the prairie, between Kansas 
River on one side, Solomon's Fork on another, and Salt Creek on the 
third, and a large belt of woods about four miles from camp on the fourth. 
We were thus completely hemmed and incoraparatively secure from 
danger. Our animals were grazing near this belt of woods the day 
before, and when they had been driven into camp at night, one of the 
mules was missing. At daylight a number of Indians, the Topographi- 
cal Engineer (Mr. Eglostein), and myself, salhed out in search of it. 
After looking through the woods for an hour, we discovered our mule 
lying dead, with his lariat drawn close around his neck. It had become 
loose, and trailing along the ground had become entangled with the 
branches of an old tree, and in his endeavors to extricate himself he was 
strangled. We were attracted to the spot by the howling of wolves, and 
we found that he had been partially devoured by them. Our engineer, 
who wanted a wolf-skin for a saddle-cloth, determined to remain to kill 
one of them. 

I assisted him to ascend a high tree immediately over the body 
of the mule, untied the lariat, and attaching his rifle to one end of 
it, he pulled it up to him. The rest of the party returned to camp. 
About four o'clock in the afternoon, he being still out, I roasted some 
buffalo meat and went to seek him. I found him still in the tree, quietly 
awaiting an opportunity to kill his wolf He declined to come down. I 
told him to what danger he was exposing himself, and entreated him to 
return to camp. Finding him determined to remain, I sent him up Ids 
supper and returned to camp, expecting him to be in at sundown. The 
prairies were now on fire just beyond the belt of woods, and through 
which Col. Fremont had to pass. Becoming alarmed for Mr. Eglostein, 
several of us went to bring him in. Wo found him halfway to camp, 
dragging by the lariat the dead body of an immense wolf, which he 



PBAERIES ON FIR-E. 433 

had shot. We assisted him on with his booty as well as well as we could. 
My "guard" came ou at two o'clock. I lay down to take a three hours' 
rest; when I went on duty, the scene that presented itself was sublime. A 
breeze had sprung up which dissipated the smoke to windward. The full 
moon was shining brightly, and the piles of clouds which surrounded her 
presented magnificent studies of light and shadow v/hich Claude Lorraine 
so loved to paint. The fire had reached the belt of woods, and had already 
burned part of the tree our friend had been seated on all day. The fire on 
the north side had burned up to the water's edge, and had there stopped. 
The whole horizon now seemed bounded by fire ; our Delawares by this time 
had picketed all the animals near the creek we were camped on, and all the 
baggage of the camp safely carried down the banks near the water. When 
day dawned, the magnificent woods which had sheltered our animals now 
appeared a forest of black scathed trunks. When the fire gradually 
increased around us, we dared not change our ground : first, because we saw 
no point where there was not more danger than where we were : second, if 
we moved away, the Indian chief, Solomon, who, after conducting us to 
the camp-ground we now occupied, had returned to guide Col. Fremont, 
would not know exactly where to find us again. Just after break- 
fast, one of the Delawares gave a loud whoop, and pointed to 
the burning prairie before us, where, to our great joy, we saw 
Col. Fremont, followed by an immense man, who proved to be the 
doctor, on an immense mule, and the Indian chief and his servant, 
galloping through the blazing element in the direction of our camp. 
Instantly, with one accord, all the men discharged their rifles in a volley; 
our tents were struck, and we wanted to make a signal for their guidance. 
We all reloaded, and when they were very near, we fired a salute. Our 
men and Indians immediately surrounded Col. Fremont, with kind 
inquiries after his health. No father who had been absent from his 
children co''M have been received with more enthusiasm and real joy. 
To reach ... he had to travel over nearly fifty miles of country which 
had been on fire.; the Indian trail which led to our camp from Solomon's 
fr: k bein? -obliterated, it was most difficult and arduous to follow it; but 
keen sen? • "-r the Indian directed him under all difficulties, d'rectly 
'he spot'^h. ir. '19 bad left us. 

• During the i-abnce of the day we put the camp in travelling order. 
lib the arrival of the colonel our provisions had received comiderable 
iilions, more in fact, than he had any good reason to suppose we had 
nsun.ed during his absence. During the night the fire crossed the 
iu.iaa River, and was directly approaching our camp. At day-light our 
'r,!.; were all packed — the camp raised, and all the men in their sad- 



4-34 LIinE AND SERVICES OF JODN C. FKEMONT. 

dies. Our only escape was through the blazing grass, — we dashed into 
it, Col. Fremont at the head, his officers following, while the rest of the 
party were driving up the baggage animals. The distance we rode 
through the blazing tire could not have been more than one hundred 
feet — the grass which quickly ignites, as quickly consumes, leaving only 
black ashes in the rear. We passsed through the fiery ordeal unscathed ; 
made that day over the burnt prairie about fifteen miles, and camped 
for the night on the dry bed of a creek, beyond the reach of the devour- 
ing clement. ******* 

" Walmit Creek Camp. — The weather is very cold and disagreeable. 
One of the officers on guard left the animals and came into camp to warm 
himself, — Col. Fremont saw him at the fire and asked if he had been 
relieved ; he said, ' no.' Col. F. told him that he expected him to travel 
on foot during the next day's journey. 

" From being unaccustomed to a life among the Indians, I thought 
the punishment very severe ; but the sequel vindicated the justice of it. 
When the animals were driven to camp in the morning, five horses and 
mules were missing ; half the day was spent in an unsuccessful search for 
them. Our Delawares reported Cheyenne moccasin tracks in the vicinity, 
which led Col. Fremont to follow them, they being also on the line of our 
travel ; he soon discovered the marks of horse shoes, which proved that we 
were on the track of the robbers. (The Indian horses are never shod.) We 
crossed the divide, to the Arkansas, and followed up that river a consi- 
derable distance to " Big Tombee " where there was a Cheyenne Indii\n 
Tillage. Here we found the animals as well as the thieves. On examin- 
ation they confessed that they had watched our camp until the man left 
his guard to warm himself by the camp fire, during which time they took 
the opportunity to run off five animals, and if they had been unguarded 
« naif hour longer, they would have stolen the whole of them. 

" Thus the lives of the whole party were jeopardized by the inconsi- 
derate conduct of this sentinel. We were about four hundred milca 
from the frontiers, at the commencement of a most inclement winter. 
Had we lost our animals, we must have perished, exposed as we were on 
those vast prairies to bands of Pawnee, Camanche, and other hostile 
Indians. 

" The party proceeded to Mr. Bent's House, a few miles further, where 
we camped. Col. Fremont intended to procure fresh supplies of pro- 
visions at Bent's Fort ; but the Indians had destroyed and sacked it. Mr: 
Bent had saved some sugar and coffee with which he kindly supplied us. 
Here all the men were provided with fresh an-.mals preparatory to ascend- 
ing the immense mountains now in sight. Au Indian lodge sufficient to 



THE FIFTH EXPEDITION. 435 

shelter our whole party, with a small one for Col. Fremont, together with 
a btiffiilo robe for each man, and buffalo robe overshoes, moccasius, kc, 
were also provided by Mr. Bent. 

"We remained here several days, which gave mc an opportunity to 
daguerreotype and sketch interesting scenes at the Cheyeuuc Village. 
About the 20 th November we started for the mountains. 

" After crossing the Huarfano River, we saw the immense pile of 
granite rock which rises perpendicularly to the height of four or five 
hundred feet from a perfectly level valley ; it appeared like a mammoth 
sugar-loaf, (called the Huarfano Butte). Col. Fremont expressed a desire 
to have several views of it from different distances ; the main party pro- 
ceeded on the journey, leaving under my charge the mules which carried 
our apparatus, and also the blankets and buffalo robes of the whole 
camp, it being necessary, in order to equalize their weight, to distribute 
the different boxes on three or four animals. Mr. Eglostein, Mr. Fuller, 
and two Delawares remained with me. To make a daguerreotype view 
generally occupied from one to two hours — the principal part of that 
time, however, was occupied in opening the apparatus, and repacking 
and reloading the mules. When we came up to the Butte, Mr. Fuller 
made barometrical observations at its base, and also ascended to the top 
to make observations, in order to ascertain its exact height. This took 
considerable time, and when we had completed our work, we found that 
we were four hours behind camp, which was equal to twelve miles. We 
followed the trail of our party, through the immense fields of artimesia, 
until night overtook us. We travelled until we could no longer distin- 
guish the trail. 

" We discharged our arms as a signal to our camp — they answered n3 
by firing off their rifles, but the wind being then high, we could not 
determine their exact distance or position. When taking counsel together 
we determined to encamp for the night on the side of a mountain covered 
with pines near by. We soon had a large fire burning, for the weather 
was intensely cold and disagreeable ; but upon unloading our animals we 
found that we had with us all the blankets and buffalo robes of the camp, 
but nothing to eat or drink, the night was so dark that although not more 
than half a mile from a creek, we preferred to suffer from thirst rather 
than incur fresh danger which might lurk about it. I had with me three 
tin boxes containing preserved eggs and milk, but I preferred to go sup- 
perless to bed rather than touch the small supply which I had, unknown 
to the rest, carefully hid away in my boxes to be used on some more press- 
ing occasion. Our absence was most keenly felt by the camp for they 
had to remain up around their fire all night, not having anything to sleep 



436 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

on. "We also watched all night fearful lest our animals should stray away 
or that we should be attacked by Indians. At day-dawn we reloaded our 
animals, found our lost trail, and we soon met some of our party whom 
Col. Fremont had sent out to find us ; when wc got to the camp they were 
all ready for a start awaiting us. A delicious breakfast of venison and 
buffalo, pot-pourri had been prepared, and we discussed its merits with 
an appetite sharpened by a twenty-four hours fast. 

" We entered the San Luis valley through the Sand Hill Pass, wlijch 
was admirably adapted for railroad purposes. We continued through the 
valley of the Rio Grande over the Sarawatch mountains into the Sara- 
watch valley, through the Cochatope Pass, on tlie summit of which we 
found but little snow. Our road lay through a forest of trees still in foli* 
lage, with immensely high mountains of snow on either side of the pass. 

" From the top of the highest I made daguerreotype panorama of the 
continuous ranges of mountains which slumbered at my feet covered with 
their everlasting mantle of snow in which we were destined to suffer so 
many privations. 

" Several days after we came down from the pass, it became necessary 
to ascend a steep mountain covered with from two to three feet of snow. 
When we were about half way up, the foremost baggage mule lost his 
balance and fell down, carrying with him nearly all the party, who might 
have been seen tumbling head over heels down the mountain, a distance 
of several hundred feet. I was thrown from my horse, and remained 
up to my head in the snow, but my horse was rolled over to the very 
bottom, where I found him unharmed. One horse and one mule were 
killed on the spot. 

^ ^ ^ it ^ ^ ^ ^ 

" After descending a very steep mountain on the deep snows of which 
tre passed the coldest night I experienced during our journey — ther- 
mometer at daylight, being near 30°. We camped on a creek fringed 
with willows, and interspersed with cottonwood ; the country indicating 
that there might be game about, our Delawares sallied out in quest of 
some. We at this time were on rations of meat, biscuit, and had killed 
our first horse for food ; towards night our hunters returned and brouglit 
with them the choice parts of a fine fat young horse, that they had 
killed. He was one of three or four wild ones which they discovered 
grazing some four miles from camp. Our men, in consequence, received 
a considerable addition to their stock of provision, which when cooked 
.proved much more palatable than our broken down horses. 

" The Delawares also discovered recent foot-prints of Utah Indians. 
This iuformation caused Col. Fremont to double the guard and examine 



DISCIPLINE OF THE CAMP. 437 

the arms of the whole party, who hitherto had been warned by him of 
the necessity there was for keeping them in perfect order. Suddenly it 
occurred to me that my double barrelled gun might be out of order ; I had 
used it as a * walking stick,' in descending the mountain ; that day 
the snow was so deep that .1 was obliged to resort to that course, to 
ascend myself. I quietly went to the place where I had laid it down, 
and attempted to fire it off — both caps snapped ; the quick ear of Col. 
Fremont, heard the cap explode. He approached me very solemnly and 
gave me a lecture, setting forth the consequences which might have 
resulted from a sudden attack of the Indians, on our camp. ' Under pre- 
sent circumstances, Mr. Carvalho,' he said, 'I should have to fight for 
you.' His rebuke was merited, and had its effect throughout the camp, 
"for all the men were most particular afterwards in keeping their arms in 
perfect order. We travelled that day nearly twenty miles, and encamped 
in an Utah Indian village, containing a large number of lodges and 
probably several hundred persons. The men were mostly armed with 
rifles, powder-horns, and also with their Indian implements of warfare. 
On our mules was packed the balance of our ' fat horse ' of the night 
before. These Indians received us ^'ery kindly, and during the evening we 
exposed our wares, viz. : — Blankets, knives, &c., which we brought along 
to conciliate the Indians, and also to trade with them for horses and 
venison. We made several purcliases, &c. — About 9 o'clock after plac- 
ing double guard round our arimals, and while we were regaling on fat 
deer meat, loud noises were hjard approaching the camp. We soon dis- 
tinguished the voices of women in bitter bewailment. I thought it was a 
religious ceremony of burial, or something of the kind. Col. Fremont, 
requested me to see from what it proceeded ; I found the procession of 
the whole Indian camp ; the warriors all armed, headed by a half-breed 
who had been some time in Mexico, and had acquired a smattering of 
the Spanish language, who acted as interpreter — understanding Spanish, 
gleaned from him that the horse our Delawares had killed, the evening 
before, some 20 miles away, belonged to one of the squaws, who valued 
it very highly, and demanded payment. On informing Col. Fremont, 
who had denied himself to the Indians, he remarked to the women we 
had no i-ight to kill it without remunerating her for it, and he deputed 
the person in charge of the baggage, to gi 'e them what was right. 
Having seen our assortment, they wanted a part of everything we had, 
including a keg of gunpowder. To this demand, Col. Fremont gave an 
absolute refusal, and at the same time, expressed his desire that tl'.e men 
should not sell, barter, or give away a single grain of gunpowder, on 
pain of his severest displeasure. The Indians then threatened to attack 



438 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

us. Col. Fremont defied them. After considerable patience, we suc- 
ceeded in pacifying them and sending them off. It was now daylight. 
We repacked our animals and raised camp. At the end of our day's 
journey, we found ourselves on the Grand River, thirty miles from our 
last camp. While at supper, the guard on the look-out gave the alarra 
that Indians were approaching. The word was given to arm and prepare 
to receive them. 

About fifty or sixty mounted Utah Indian warriors all armed with rifles 
and bows and arrows, displaying their powder-horns and cartouch-boxes 
most conspicuously, their horses full of mettle and gaily caparisoned, 
came galloping and tearing into camp. They also had come to-be com- 
pensated for the horse which had been paid for the night before. They 
insisted that the horse did not belong to the woman, but to one of the 
Indians then present, and threatened if we did not pay them " a great deal 
of red cloth and blankets, knives, powder," &c., they would fall upon us 
and .massacre the whole party. On these occasions. Col. Freniont never 
ehowcd himself, which caused the Indians to have considerable more 
respect for the Great Captain, as they usually called him ; nor did he 
ever communicate directly with them, which gave him time to deliberate, 
and lent a mysterious importance to his messages. 

Very much alarmed, I entered Col. Fremont's lodge, and told him their 
errand and their threats. He at once expressed his determination not to 
submit to such imposition, and at the same time laughed at their threats. 
I could not comprehend his calmness. I dcenud our position most 
alarming, surrounded as we were by armed savages, and I evidently 
betrayed my alarm in my countenance. Col. Fremont, without apparently 
noticing my nervous state, remarked that he knew the Indian character 
perfectly, and he did not hesitate to state that there was not sufficient 
powder to load a single rifle in the possession of the whole tribe of Utahs. 
" If," continued he, " they had had any ammunition, they would have 
surrounded and massacred us, and stolen what they now demand and are 
parleying for." I at once saw that it was a most sensible deduction, and 
gathered fresh courage ; the general aspect of the enemy was at once 
changed ; and I Ustened to his directions in a very different frame of 
mind than when I entered. He tore a leaf from his journal, and 
handing it to me, saic^ : " Here, take this, and place it against a 
tree, and, a distance near enough to hit it every time. Discharge 
your Colt's navy six shooters — fire at intervals of ten to fifteen 
(Seconds — and call the attention of the Indians to the fact that it 
is not necessary for white men to load their arms. I did so. After 
the first shot, they pointed to their own rifles, as much aa to say 



OATH AGAINST CANNIBALISM. 439 

they could do the same (if they had happened to have the powder.) 
I, without lowering my arm, fired a second shot; this startled them. 
I discharged it a third time ; their curiosity aud amazement wag 
increased ; the fourth time I placed the pistol in the hands of the cliief, 
and told him to discharge it, which he did, hitting the paper and making 
another impression of the bullet. The fifth and sixth times two other 
Indians exploded it ; having discharged the six, it was time to replace 
it in my belt. I had another one ready loaded, which I dexterously sub- 
stituled, and scared them into the acknowledgment that they were all 
at our mercy, for we could kill them as fast as we liked, if we were so 
disposed. After this exhibition, they forgot their first demand, but pro- 
posed to exchange some of their horses for blankets. We effected a 
trade for three or four apparently sound strong animals — which in a few 
days proved utterly worthless, having gone so lame that we had to kill 
them for food. The Indians asked to remain in camp as it was then near 
dark, and they had ridden thirty miles. Col. Fremont assented, but on thla 
occasion, eleven men were on guard at one time, all armed. The Indians, 
who no doubt waited in our camp to run our horses off during the night, 
were much disappointed in not having an opportunity. They quietly de- 
parted next morning, while our whole camp listened to the energetic ex- 
clamation of Col. Fremont, that the ' Price of safety is eternal vigilance.' 

" At last we are drawn to the necessity of killing our brave horses 
for food. To-day the first sacrifice was made. It was with us all a 
solemn event, rendered far more solemn however by the impressive 
scene which followed. Col. Fremont came out to us, and after referring 
to the dreadful necessities to which his men had been reduced on a 
previous expedition, of eating each other, he begged us to swear that in 
no extremity of hunger would any of his men lift his hand against or 
attempt to prey upon a comrade ; sooner let him die with them than live 
upon them. They all promptly took the oath, and threatened to shoot 
the first one that hinted or proposed such a thing. 

" It was a most impressive scene, to witness twenty-two men on a 
snowy mountain, with bare heads, and hands and eyes upraised to 
Heaven, uttering the solemn vow ' So help me God !' — and the valley 
echoed, 'So help me God 1' I never, until that moment, realized the 
awful situation in which I was placed. I remembered the words of the 
Psalmist, and felt perfectly assured of my final safety. Tliey wandered in 
the wilderness in a solitary way ; they found no city to dwell in. Hungry 
and thirsty their soul fainteth within them, and they cried unto the Lord 
in their trouble and he delivered them out (if their distresses,* 



440 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

" When an animal gave out, he was shot down by the Indians, who 
immediately cut his thioat, and saved all the blood in our camp kettle. 
This animal was divided into twenty-two parts. Two parts for Col. Fre- 
mont and his cook, ten parts for the white camp, and ten parts for the 
Indians. Col. Fremont hitherto messed with his officers; at this time he 
requested that they would excuse him, as it gave him pain, and called tc 
mind the horrible scenes which had been enacted during his last expedi- 
tion — he could not see his officers obhged to partake of such disgusting 
food. 

" The rule he adopted was that one animal should serve for six meals 
for the whole party. If one gave out in the meantime, of course it was 
an exception ; but otherwise, on no consideration was an animal to be 
slaughtered, for, every one that was killed, placed a man on foot, and 
limited our chances of escape from our present situation. If the 
men chose to eat up their six meals aU in one day, they would 
have to go without until the time arrived for killing another. It 
frequently happened that the white camp was without food from 
twenty-four to thirty-six hours, while Col. Fremont and the Delawares 
always had a meal. The latter religiously abstained from encroach- 
ing on the portion allotted for another meal, while many men of our 
camp, I may say all of them, not content with their portion, would, to 
satisfy the cravings of hunger, surreptitiously purloin from their pile of 
meat, at diflereut times, sundry pieces, thus depriving themselves of each 
other's allowance. My own sense of right was so subdued by the suffer 
ings I endured by hunger, and walking almost barefooted through the 
snow, that while going to guard one night, I stole a piece of frozen horse 
liver, ate it raw, and thought it, at the time, the most delicious morsel I 
ever tasted. 

" The entrails of the horse were ' well shaken ' (for we had no water 
to wash them in) and boiled with snow, producing a highly flavored 
soup, which the men considered so valuable and delicious that they for- 
bade the cook to skim the pot for fear any portion of it might be lost. 
The hide was divided into equal portions, and with the bones roasted and 
burnt to a crisp. This we munched on the road ; but the men not being 
satisfied with the division of the meat by the cook, made him turn his 
back, while another took up each share separately, and inquired who 
should have it. When the snows admitted it we collected the thick 
leaves of a species of cactus which we also put in the fire to burn off the 
prickles, and ate. It then resembled in taste and nourishment an Irish 
potato peeling. We lived in this way for nearly fiity days, travelling 
from Grand Iliver across the divide to Green River, and over the first 



DEATH OF FULLEK. 441 

range of the "Wahsach Mountains, on foot, Col. Fremont at our head, 
tramping a pathway for his men tofollow. He, as well as the rest of the 
party, towards the last were entirely barefoot — some of them had a piece 
of raw hide on tlieir feet, which, however, becoming hard and stiff by the 
frost, made them more uncomfortable than walking without any. 

" About the end of January we crossed the Green River, and entered 
upon a country — barren and sterile to a degree, over which we travelled 
until we got to the base of the Wahsach mountains. 

'■^February Xat. Yesterday Mr. Ohver Fuller, of St Louis, who had been on 
foot for some weeks, suddenly gave out. Our engineers and myself were 
^yith him. He found himself unable to proceed — the snow was very deep, 
and his feet were badly frozen. He insisted that we should leave him, 
and hasten to camp for relief; not being able to render him any assis- 
tance by remaining, we wrapped his blankets around him and left him on 
the traiU In vain we searched for material to build him a fire — nothing 
was visible but a wild waste of snow ; we were also badly crippled, and 
we did not arrive in camp until ten o'clock at night at which time it 
began snowing furiously. We told Col. Fremont of Mr. Fuller's situation, 
when he sent a Mexican named Frank, with the two best animals and 
cooked horsemeat, to bring Mr. Fuller in. There was not a dry eye ia 
the whole camp that night — the men sat up anxiously awaiting the return 
of our companions. At daylight they being still out. Col. Fremont sent 
three Delawares mounted, to look for them— about ten o'clock one of 
them returned with the Mexican and two mules. Frank was badly frozen 
he had lost the track, and bewildered and cold, he sank down holding on 
to the animals, where he was found by the Delaware during the afternoon. 
The two Delawares supporting Mr. Fuller were seen approaching. He 
was found awake but almost dead from the cold and fiiintness. Col. 
Fremont personally rendered him all the assistance in his power. So did 
all of us — for he was beloved and respected by the whole camp for his 
gentlemanly behavior and his many virtues. Col. Fremont remaiued at 
this dreary place near three days to allow poor Fuller time to recruit — 
and afterwards assigned to him the best mule to carry him, while two of 
the men walked on either side to support him, A portion of our scanty 
food was appropriated at every meal from each man's portion to make 
Mr. Fuller's larger, as he required sustenance more than they did. On 
the Tth February, almost in sight of succor, the Almighty took him to 
himself: he died on horseback — his two companions wrapped him in his 
India rubber blanket and laid him across the trail. We arrived next 
day at Parawan. After the men had rested a little, we went in company 
with three or four of the inhabitants of Parawan, to bury our deceased 
friend. His remains had not been disturbed durLr^ O'lr absence. 



442 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FKEMONT. 

" When we arrived at Tarawan tlie Mormons treated us very kindly, 
and several of them told me if they had known of our situation they 
would have hastened to our assistance. My illness prevented my accom- 
panying Col. Fremont on the 21st of February ; I followed about three 
months after, on his trail of 1844 and arrived at Los Angeles in June, 
thence by steamboat to San Francisco where I again met our late leader." 

Col. Benton, speaking of this last ex]3edition of Col. 
Fremont, says, "lie went straight to the spot where 
the guide had gone astray — followed the c<jurse des- 
cribed by the mountain men and found safe and easy 
passes all the way to California, through a good'country, 
and upon the straight line of 38 and 39 degrees." 

Though the result of this expedition, was so satisfac- 
tory, the processes by which it was reached were any- 
thing but satisfactory. Nothing was heard of the party 
in the United States until three months after their depar- 
ture. That came through Col. Babbitt, the Secretary of 
Utah Territory. On the 8th of February, 1854, four 
days' journey from Great Salt Lake, on his way to 
Washington with the United States mail, an Indian 
came to his camp and said that he had just met a party 
of Americans who were " very hungry." Babbitt soon 
overtook the party, and found it consisted of Col. Fre- 
mont and his companions. They had lived fifty days on 
horse-ilesh, and for the last forty-eight hours had been 
without food of any kind. 

Col. Babbitt, who was then on his way to San Fran- 
cisco, wished Fremont to go directly there with liim, 
but he refused, notwithstanding the enfeebled condition 
of his party, because he had not yet completed his 
Surveys, and he was determined never to return without 
them. He therefore held on his course the next day, 
having first written tlie following letter, which ho 



LETTER FEOM COL. FEEMONT. 443 

requested Col. Babbitt to licand to Col. Benton as soon 
as possible. 

" Parawan, Iron Countt,* ) 

"Utah TtKRiToay, Feb. 9, 1S54. ) 

" Dear Sir : I have had the good fortune to meet here our friend 
Mr. Babbitt, the Secretary of the Territory, who is on his way to Wash 
ington, in charge of the mail and other very interesting dispatches, the 
importance of which is urging him forward with extreme rapidity. He 
passes directly on this morning, and I have barely a few moments to give 
you intelligence of our safe arrival and of our general good health and 
reasonable success in the object of our expedition. 

" This winter has happened to be one of extreme and unusual cold. 
Here, the citizens inform me, it has been altogether the severest since the 
settlement of this valley. Consequently, so far as the snows are con. 
cerned, the main condition of our exploration has been fulfilled. We 
entered the mountain regions on the Huerfano River on the 3rd of 
December, and issued from it here on the 7th of this month, arriving 
here yesterday afternoon. We went through the Cochatope Pass on 
the 14th December, with four inches — not feet, take notice, but inches — 
of snow on the level, among the pines and in the shade on the summit of 
the Pass. 

" This decides what you consider the great question, and fulfills tho 
leading condition of my explorations ; and therefore I go no further into 
details in this letter. 

" I congratulate you on this verification of your judgment, and the 
good prospect it holds out of final success in carrying the road 
by this central line. Nature has been bountiful to this region, in accu- 
mulating here, within a few miles of where I am writing, vast deposits 
of iron, and coal, and timber, all of the most excellent quahty ; and a 
great and powerful interior State will spring up immediately in the steps 
of the Congressional action which should decide to carry the road 
through this region. In making my expedition to this point I save nearly 
a parallel of latitude, shortening the usual distance from Green River to 
this point by over a Imndred niilesl In crr>ssing to the Sierra Nevada I 
shall go direct by an unexplored route, aiming to strike directly the 
Tejon Passes at the head of the San Joaquin valley, through whicli in 
1850, I drove from two to three thousand head of cattle that I delivered 

* Valley of the Parawan, about 60 miles cast of the meadows of 
Santa Clara, between 37 and 38 degrees of north latitude, and between 
113 and 114 degrees of west longitude: elevation above the sea about 
5,000 feet. 



444 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FKEMONT. 

to the Indian Commissioners. I shall make what speed I possibly can, 
going light, and abaudoiiiug the more elaborated survey of my previous 
line, to gain sjieed. 

" Until within about a hundred miles of this place we had dagucrre- 
otyped the country over which we passed, but were forced to abandon all 
our heavy baggage to save the men,. and I shall not stop to send back 
for it. The JDelawarcs all came in sound, but the whites of my party 
were all exhausted and broken up, and more or less frost-bitten. I lost 
one, Mr. Fuller, of St. Louis, Missouri, who died on entering tliis valley. 
He died like a man, on horseback, iu his saddle, and will be buried like a 
soldier on the spot where he fell.* 

*■ I hope soon to see you in Washington. Mr. Babbitt expects to see 
you before the end of March. Among other documents which he carrier 
with him are the maps and report of Captain Gunnison's party. 

" Sincerely and affectionately, 

"John C. Fremont. 

"Col. Benton, Washington. 

"P. S. — This is the Little Salt Lake settlement, and was commenced 
three years since. Population now four hundred, and one death by sick- 
ness since the settlement was made. We have been most hospitably 
received. Mr. Babbitt has been particularly kind, and has rendered me 
very valuable assistance." 

Col. Babbitt reported in San Francisco that the 
chances were against the party ever coming through, 
thej were so enfeebled. In this, however, he had mis- 
calculated the energy and resources of the man who 
conducted it, though he did not exaggerate the difficul- 
ties which were to be met and overcome. Col. Fremont 
did arrive about the first of May, worn and enfeebled 
it is true, by his journey, but with the evidences for 
which he had encountered all its perils in his hand. 

Col. Fremont was tendered a public dinner by the 
citizens of San Francisco soon after his arrival ; he 
declined the compliment however, as he did every 
engagement having a tendency to delay his departure 

* See journal of Mr. Carvalho. 



PACIFIC EAILEOAD. 445 

for "Wasliington, wliither lie desired to carry the results 
of his explorations with all practicable dispatch, in order 
that Congress, then occupied with the subject of a trans- 
continental road, might have the benefit of his observa- 
tions. 

No official report of this expedition has jet been pre- 
l^ared, but immediately upon reaching AVashington he 
summed out its results and the conclusions to which it 
had brought him, in a very instructive and interesting 
letter communicated to a Washington paper.* 

• See Appendix. 



'4:4:6 LIFE AND BEEVICES OF JOUN C. FKEMONT. 



CHAPTER XYin. 

COL. FEEMONT C03MES TO EESmE IN NEW YOKE — IS TALKED 

OF FOE THE PEESIDENCY LETTEE TO GOV. EOBINSON 

OF KANSAS LETTEE TO A PUBLIC MEETING IN NEW 

TOEK UPON THE SUBJECT OF TEOUBLES IN KANSAS 

IS NOMINATED FOE THE PEESIDENCY BY THE NATIONAL 

REPUBLICAN CONVENTION LETTEE OF ACCEPTANCE 

LETTEE ACCEPTING THE NOMINATION OF THE " NATIONAL 
AMERICANS. 



n 



In the spring of 1855, Col. Fremont, with his family, 
took up his residence in the city of Kew York for a 
few months, that he might avail himself of the facilities 
which that metropolis would afford him in bringing out 
an elaborate report of his last expedition. While thus 
employed and living in tlie most absolute seclusion, his 
name began to be discussed in political circles as a suita- 
ble candidate of the parties opposed to extending slavery 
and slave representation in the country, for the next 
Presidency. "Wherever the suggestion was made it was 
favorably received, and before the meeting of Congress, 
in December, the feeling of the Northern States was 
ascertained to be not unfriendly to his nomination, 
though his name, up to that time, we believe had 
not been mentioned in connection with the Presidency 
by a single leading journal. 



LETTER TO GOVEKNOE EOBINSON. 447 

The election to the speakership of the thirty-fourth 
Congress, of N. P. Banks, of Massachusetts, who had 
been one of the first to discern the fitness and expe- 
diency of nominating CpL Fremont for the Presidency, 
and the publication of a friendly letter from an old 
California friend, Governor Charles Pobinson, who had 
then recently become involved in a perilous struggle 
for freedom in Kansas, removed whatever doubts had 
existed among Col. Fremont's friends about the pro- 
priety of publicly presenting his name. Gov. Pobinson 
had shared with Col. Fremont some of the penalties of 
too great devotion to the cause of freedom when they 
were together in California, and the letter to which we 
have referred, was written to give the governor assu- 
rance of his cordial sympathy with him in the important 
contest which he was waging so bravely against fearful 
odds in Kansas. It ran as follows : 



LETTER FKOM OOL. FREMONT TO GOV. EOBINSON'. 

New York,' March 17, 1S56. 

" My Dear Sir : Tour letter of February reached me in Wash- 
ington some time since. I read it Avith mucli satisfaction. It was 
a great pleasure to find you retained so lively a recollection of our 
intercourse in California. But my own experience is, that perma- 
nent and valuable friendships are most ofti n formed in contests and 
struggles. If a man has good points, then they become salient, and 
we know each other suddenly. 

" I had both been thinking and speaking of you latterly. The 
Banks balloting in the House, and your movements in Kansas, have 
naturally carried my mind back to our hundred odd ballots in Cali- 
fornia and your letter came seasonably and fitly to complete the 
connection. "We were defeated then ; but that contest was only an 
incident in a great struggle, and the victory was deferred, not lost. 
\'o\x have carried to another field the same principle, with courage 



448 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

and ability to maintain it ; and I make you my sincere congratnla- 
tions on your success — incomplete so far, but destined in the end to 
triumph absolutely. I liad been waiting to see what shape the 
Kansas question would take in Congress, that I niiglit be enabled to 
give you some views in relation to the probable result. Nothing 
yet has been accomi)lis]ied. But I am satisfied that in the end 
Congress will take etiicient measures to lay before the American 
peo])le the exact truth concerning your affairs. Neither you nor I 
can have any doubt what verdict the people will pronounce upon a 
truthful exposition. 

" Jt is to be feared, from the proclamation of the President, that 
he intends to recognize the usurpation in Kansas as the legitimate 
government, and that its sedition law, the test oath, and the means 
to be taken to expel its people as aliens, will all, directly or indirectly, 
be supported by the army of the United States. Your position will 
undoubtedly be difficult ; but you know 1 have great confidence in 
your firmness and prudence. When the critical moment arrives, 
you must act for yourself — no man can give you counsel. A true 
man will always find his best counsel in that inspiration which a 
good cause never fails to give him at the instant of trial. All his- 
tory teaches us that great results are ruled by a wise Providence, 
and we are but units in the great plan. Your actions will be deter- 
mined by events, as they present themselves ; and at this distance 
I can only say that I sympathize cordiaUy with you, and that, as 
you stood by me firmly and generously, when we Avere defeated by 
the nullifiers in California, I have every disposition to stand by you 
in the same way in your battle with them in Kansas. 

" You see what I have been saying is more a reply to the sugges- 
tions which your condit'on makes to me, than any answer to your 
letter, which more particularly regards myself. The notices which 
you have seen of me, in connection with the Presidency, came from 
tlie partial disposition of friends who think of me more flatteringly 
than I do of myself, and do not, therefore call for any action from 
us. Repeating that I am really and sincerely gratified in the 
renewal of our friendship, or rather in the expressions of it, which 
I hope will not hereafter have so long an interval, 
" I am yours, very truly, 

"J. 0. Feemont. 

Gov. Chaeles Eobinson, Lawrence, Kansas." 



LETTER AJ30CT SLAVERY. 44:9 

In April, 1856, he was invited to attend a large meet- 
ing in New York, called for the pui-pose of obtaining a 
full expression of opinion from the commercial metro- 
polis of the country, against the policy which President 
Pierce was pursuing in Kansas. The following was his 
brief but highly acceptable reply : 

" New York, April 29, '56. 

" Gentlemen: I have to thank you for the honor of an invitation 
to a meeting tliis evening, at the Broadway Tabernacle, and regret 
that other engagements liave interfered to prevent my being pre- 
sent. 

" I heartily concur in all movements which have for their object 
*to repair the mischiefs arising from the violation of good faith in 
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise.' I am opposed to slavery 
in the abstract and upon principle, sustained and made habitual by 
long settled convictions. 

" While I feel inflexible in the belief that it ought not to be inter- 
fered with whei-e it exists, under the shield of State sovereignty, I 
am as inflexibly opposed to its extension on this continent beyond 
its present limits. 

" With the assurance of regard for yourselves, I am very respect- 
fully yours, 

"J. C. Feemont." 

Some months previous to this, Millard Fillmore of 
l^ew York, and Andrew Jackson Donelson of Tennes- 
see, had been nominated for the presidency and*vice- 
presidency in Philadelphia, by the pro-slavery segment 
of a convention of Know-nothings — a name chosen by 
the Native-American party for themselves. In June 
following, James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, and John 
C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, were noniinated by the 
administration party at Cincinnati, for the same offices. 
Both these sets of candidates were identified with the 
slave interest of the country, and both were the choice 



450 LITE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FKEMONT. 

of tlie southern States of the Union more particularly. It 
was apprehended, and with good reason, tliat the effect 
of electing either would be to nationalize shivery in the 
United States, or indelinitely extend and aggravate the 
disorder and anarchy which prevailed on our western 
frontier. To avoid either of these disastrous results, a 
convention was called, of three delegates from eacli 
congressional district of the United States, and a pro- 
portionate number of senatorial delegates, to meet in 
Philadelphia on the 17th of June, for the purpose of 
nominating candidates for the presidency and vice- 
presidency, who would properly reflect the views of 
those who were prepared to make freedom in the 
territories the paramount issue in the approaching 
presidential canvass. 

On the day appointed, the convention met at Musical 
Fund Hall in that city, where the Declaration of the 
Independence of these United States was first read 
and promulgated. Over a thousand delegates were in 
attendance, and among them a larger number of promi- 
nent and influential public men than ever before assem- 
bled, probably, in a national convention. Robert Emmet 
of ITew York was selected for temporary cliairman, and 
Colonel Henry S. Lane of Indiana, for president of the 
convelition. Representatives were in attendance from 
all the free States, from the territories of Kansas, 
Nebraska, and Minnesota, and from the following slave 
States and territories, viz., Virginia, Marjdand, Ken- 
tucky, Delaware, and tlie District of Columbia. 

The convention, numerous as it was, and composed of 
men of every variety of political sentiment, seemed 
animated by the single desire to select the candidate 
who should seem best calculated to unite all the sincere 



NOMINATION FOR THE PEESIDENCT. 451 

friends of freedom thronghout the Union, in liis sup- 
port, and though there were several candidates who had 
many warm friends in the convention, the judgment of 
the great majority settled, down very early in favor of 
Fremont, as combining in himself most of the requisites 
for a candidate of the republican party in the existing 
condition of the country. On an informal ballot he 
received 359 votes, more than two-thirds of the whole 
convention, and was afterwards, nominated unani- 
mously.* 

The Hon. William L. Dayton, for many years a dis- 
tinguished member of the United States Senate, and 



* The following was the result of the Informal ballot: 

FREMONT. MCLEAN. 

Maine, « 13 11 

New Hampshire, 15 — 

Vermont, 15 — 

Massaeliusetts, 39 — 

Eliode Island, 12 — 

Connecticut, IS — 

New York, 93 8 

New Jersey, 7 14 

Pennsylvania, 10 71 

Delaware, — 8 

Maryland, 4 3 

Virginia, Declined voting. 

Kentucky, 5 — 

Ohio, 80 89 

Indiana, 18 21 

Illinois, 14 19 

Michigan, 13 — 

Iowa, 12 — 

Wisconsin, 15 — 

California, 12 — 

Kansas, 9 — 

Di:<trict of Columbia, • Declined to vote. 

Minnesota, — 3 

Nebraska, — 3 

Total, 869 190 

New York cast two votes for Charles Sumner, one for N. P. Banks, and one for 
Wm. U. Seward. 



452 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 






always a faitliful friend of freedom, was then nominated 
for the vice-presidency. His vote on the first informal 
ballot was not quite a majority,* but his nomination 
was made unanimous on the first formal ballot. 

The following declaration of principles was also 
nnanimously adopted by the convention : 

THE PLATFORM. 

"Tins Convention of Delegates, assembled in pnrsnanee of a 
call, addi-essed to the people of the United States, withont regard 
to past political difierences or divisions, who are opposed to the 
repeal of the Missouri Compromise ; to the policy of the present 
administration and to the extension of slavery into free territory: 
who are in favor of the admission of Kansas as a free State ; of 



* INFORMAL BALLOT. 



States. 


1-5 

z 

a 


3 


a! 
'2 

i 

SI 

'3 
5 
1 

43 


z 
5/. 

'9 

9 


5 

1 

1 
1 

1 

3ti 


2 
5 

1 

6 
7 


>. 

5 
1 

3 


c3 
15 

15 


c 

111 

c 

'2 


'i 
1 

17 
24 

4 
46 


8 
4 


Z 
c 

1 


Z 

>-. 


k 

S 


S 



2 

2 




211 
7 

25 

8 

1 

15 

21 

2S 

9 

6 

G5 

ly 

13 

7 

15 


1 

8 

7 
2 

"3 

11 

"2 

2<; 

33 

- 5 

' iV 
110 


New Hampshire, 

Vermont, 

Miissachusetts, 








Pennsylvania, 

Delnwaie, 


VirKiiiia, 

Kentucliy, 

Oliio, 


Illinois, 




l"Wa, 

AVi-Jconpin, 

California, 


iMinnesota, 

District of Columbia,. . . 

Total, 


S 

■269 



PLATFOEM OF THE PHILADELPHIA COITVENTION. 453 

restoring the action of tlie Federal Government to the principles of 
Washington and Jefferson; and who purpose to unite in presenting 
candidates for the offices of President and Vice-President, do 

"1. Resolve, Tliat the maintenance of the principles proranl- 
gated in the Detlai-ation of Independence and embodied in the Fed- 
eral Constitution, is essential to the preservation of our republican 
institutions ; and that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the 
States, and the Union of the States, shall be preserved. 

'' 2. Resolved., That with our republican fathers we hold it to be a 
self-evident truth that all men are endowed with inalienable rights 
to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and that the primary 
object and ulterior design of our Federal Government were to 
secure those rights to all persons within its exclusive jurisdiction ; 
that, as our republican fixthers, when they had abolished slavery in 
all our national territory, ordained that no person should be de- 
prived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, it 
becomes our duty to maintain this provision of the Constitution 
against all attempts to violate, for the purpose of establishing 
slavery in any territory of the United States, by positive legislation 
prohibiting its existence or extension therein ; and we deny the 
antliority of Congress, of a territorial legislature, of any individual 
or any association of individuals, to give legal existence to slavery 
in any territory of the United States, while the present Constitu- 
tion shall be maintained. 

" 3. Resolved, That the Constitution confers upon Congress sover- 
eign power over the territories of the United States for their govern- 
ment, and that in the exercise of this power it is both the right and 
duty of Congress to prohibit in the territories, those twin relics of 
barbarism — polygamy and slavei-y. 

" 4. Resolved, That while the Constitution of the United States 
was ordained and established by the people in order to 'forma 
more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, 
provide for the common defence, and secure the blessings of Lib- 
erty,' and contains ample provisions for the protection of the life, 
liberty and property of every citizen, the dearest constitutional 
rights of the people of Kansas have been fraudulently and violently 
taken from them ; 

" Their territory has been invaded by an armed force; 

" Spurious and pretended legislative, judicial and executive offi- 



454 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FKEMONT. 

cers have been set over them, by wliose usurped antliority, sustained 
by the military power of the jrovernment, tyrannical and unconsti- 
tutional laws have beea enacted aad euforced ; 

' The rights of the people to keep and bear arms have been 
infringed ; 

"Test oaths, of an extraordinary and entangling nature, have 
been imposed as a condition of exercising the right of suffrage and 
holding office ; 

" The right of an accused person to a speedy and public trial by 
an impartial jury has been denied ; 

" The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, 
papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, has | 
been violated ; 

"Tliey have been deprived of life, liberty and property without] 
due process of law ; 

" The freedom of speech and of the press has been abridged ; 

" The right to choose their representatives has been made of no 
effect ; 

"Murders, robberies, and arsons have been instigated and en- 
couraged, and the offenders have been allowed to go unpunished ; 

"That all these things have been done with the knowledge, sanc- 
tion, and procurement of the present administration, and that for 
this high cr" xie against the Constitution, and the Union, and hu- 
manity, we arraign tliat administration, tlie President, his advisers, 
agents, su[)porter3, apologists, 8,nd accessories either before or after 
the facts — before the country and before the world ; and that it is 
our fixed purpose to bring the actual perpetrators of tliese atrocious 
outrages and their accomplices, to a sure and condign punishment. 

"5. JSesoloed, That Kansas should be immediately admitted as a 
State of the Union, with her present free Constitution, as at once 
the most effectual way of securing to her citizens the enjoyment of 
the rights and privileges to which they are entitled and of ending 
the civil strife now raging in her territory. 

" 6. Hesolved^ That the higli way man's plea that ' might makes 
right,' embodied in the Ostend Circular, was in every respect un- 
worthy of American diplomacy, and would bring shame and dis- 
honor upon any government and people that should give it sanction. 

"7. Hesolced, That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean, by the most 
central and practicable route, is imperatively demanded by the inter- 



REPUBLICAIJ PLA.TFORM:. 455 

ests of the -whole country, and that the Federal Government ought 
to render immediate and efficient aid to its construction, and as aa 
auxiliary thereto, promote the immediate construction of an emi- 
grant route on the line of the railroad. 

"8. Resolved, Tliat appropriations by Congress for the improve- 
ment of rivers and harbors of a national character, required for the 
accommodation and security of our existing commerce, are autho- 
rized by the Constitution, and justified by the obligation of the gov- 
ernment to protect the lives and property of its citizens. 

" 9. Resolved^ That we invite the affiliation and co-operation of 
men of all parties, however differing from us in other respects, 
in support of the principles herein declared; and believing that the 
spirit of our institutions, as well as the Constitution of our coun- 
try, guarantees liberty of conscience, and equality of rights among 
citizens, oppose all legislation impairing their security." * 

■ — Tlie result of the deliberations of the Convention was 
communicated to Col. Fremont by a committee of the 
Convention appointed for that purpose, in a letter 
which, with its reply, ran as follows : 

LETTER FEOM THE COMMITTEE APPOINTED TO APPRISE OOL. FRE- 
MONT OF niS NOMINATION FOR THE PRESIDENCY BY THE REPUB- 
LICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION. 

" PniLADELPHU, Juno 19, 1856, 

" Sir : A convention of Delegates assembled at Philadelphia on 
the 17th, 18th and 19th days of June, 1856, under a call addressed 

* The following gentlemen composed the Committee on Resolutions : 

Maine — Henry Carter. Ohio — Hon. J. R. Giddings. 

New Hampshire — D. Clark. Michigan — Hon. Isaac Chesterey. 

Massachusetts — E. Rockwood Hoar. Wisconsin — John F. Potter. 

Connecticut — Hon. G. Wells. Indiana — John P. Durfee. 

Rhode Island — Hon. Thos. Davis. Illinois — George S. Brown. 

Vermont — E. Kirkland. Iowa — James B. Holland. 

Kew York — Hon. Preston King. California — Hon. John A. Wills. 

New Jersey — E. W. Whelpley. Kansas — John L. Winchell. 

Delaware — E. G. Bradford. Dist. of Columbia — Jacob Bigelow 

Maryland — Hon. F. P. Blair. Kentucky— Geo. D. Blakeley. 

Virginia — John C. Underwood. Minnesota — Hon. Alex. Ramsey. 
■Pennsylvania — Hon. D. Wilmot. 



4:66 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOUN C. FREMONT. 

to the people of the United States, without regard to past political 
differences or divisions, ■wlio are opposed to the repeal of the Mis- 
souri Compromise, to the policy of tiie present Administration, to 
the extension of slavery into free territory, in favor of the admission 
of Kansas as a free State, and of restoring the action of the federal 
government to the principles of Washington and Jefferson, adopted 
a declaration of princii)les and purposes for which they are united in 
political action — a copy of which we have the honor to inclose — 
and unanimously nominated you as their candidate for the office of 
President of the United States at the approaching election, as the 
chosen reprepentative of those principles in this important political 
contest, and with the assured conviction that you would give them 
full practical operation, should the suffrages of the people of the 
Union place you at the head of the national government. 

The undersigned were directed by the Convention to communi- 
cate to you the fact of your nomination, and to request you in their 
name, and as they believe, in the name of a large majority of the 
people of the country, to accept it. 

" Offering you the assurance of our high personal respect, we are 
your fellow-citizens, 

"H. S. Lane, 
" President of the Convention. 
"James M. Ashley, Anthony J. Bleecker, Joseph C. Hornblower, 
E. E. Uoar, Thaddeus Stevens, Kingsley S. Bingham, John A. 
Wills, C. F. Cleveland, Cyrus Aldrich. 
" To Jomsr 0. Fkemokt, of California." 

ooL. feemont's eeplt. 

" Netv Tork, Jvli/ 8, 1866. 
" Gentlemen : You call me to a high responsibility by placing 
me in the van of a great movement of the people of the United 
States, who, without regard to past differences, are uniting in a 
common effort to bring back the action of the federal government 
to the principles of Washington and Jefferson. Compreliending the 
magnitude of the trust which they have declared themselves willing 
to place in my hands, and deeply sensible of the honor which their 
unreserved confidence, in this threatening position of the public 
affairs, implies, I feel that I cannot better respond than by a sincere 
declaration that, in the event of my election to the Presidency, I 



ACCEPTS THE NOMINATION FOR THE PKESIDENCT. 'i57 

should enter upon the execution of its duties with a siugle-hearted 
determination to promote the good of tlie whole country, and to 
direct solely to this end all the power of the government, irrespec- 
tive of party issues and regardless of sectional strifes. The declara- 
tion of principles emhodied in the resolves of your Convention 
expresses the sentiments in which I have been educated, and which 
have been ripened into convictions by personal observation and 
experience. With this declaration and avowal, I think it necessary 
to revert to only two of the subjects embraced in the resolutions, 
and to those only because events have surrounded them with grave 
and critical circumstances, and given to them especial imj)ortance. 

" I concur in the views of the Convention deprecating the foreign 
policy to which it adverts. The assumption that we have the right 
to take from another nation its domains because we want them, is 
an abandonment of the honest character which our country has 
acquired. To provoke hostilities by unjust assumptions would be 
to sacrifice the peace and character of the country, wJien all its 
interests might be more certainly secured and its objects attained 
by just and healing counsels, involving no loss of reputation. 

'' International embarrassments are mainly the results of a secret 
diplomacy, which aims to keep from the knowledge of the people 
the operations of the government. This system is inconsistent with 
the character of our institutions, and is itself yielding gradually to 
a more enlightened public opinion, and to the power of a free press, 
which, by its broad dissemination of political intelligence, secures in 
advance to the side of justice, the judgment of the civilized world. 
An honest, firm and open policy in our foreign relations would 
command the united support of the nation, whose deliberate 
opinions it would necessarily reflect. 

" Nothing is clearer in the history of our institutions than the 
design of the nation in asserting its own independence and freedom, 
to avoid giving countenance to the extension of slavery. The 
influence of the small but compact and powerful class of men inte- 
rested in slavery, who command one section of the country-, and 
wield a vast political control as a consequence in the other, is now 
directed to turn this impulse of the devolution and I'everse its 
principles. The extension of slavery across the continent is the 
object of the power which now rules the government ; and from 
tliis spirit has sprung those kindred wrongs in Kansas so truly por- 

20 



458 LITE AND SERVICK8 OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

trayed ia one of your resolutions, whicli prove that the elements of 
the most arbitrary governments have not been vanquished by the 
just theory of our own 

" It would be out of place here to pledge myself to any particular 
policy that may be suggested to terminate the sectional controversy 
engendered by political animosities, operating on a powerful class, 
banded together by a common interest. A practical remedy is the 
admission of Kansas into the Union as a free State. The South 
should, in my judgment, earnestly desire such consummation. It 
•would vindicate the good faith — it would correct the mistake of tlie 
repeal ; and the North, having practically the benefit of the agree- 
ment between the two sections, would be satisfied, and good feeling 
be restored. The measure is perfectly consistent with the honor of 
the Soutli, and vital to its interests. 

" Tluit fatal act which gave birth to this purely sectional strife, 
originating in the "scheme to take from free labor the country 
secured to it by a solemn covenant cannot be too soob disarmed of 
its pernicious force. The only genial region of the middle latitudes 
left to the emigrants of the northern States for homes, cannot be 
conquered from the free laborers, who have long considered it as 
set apart for them in our inlieritance, without provoking a despe- 
rate struggle. "Whatever may be the persistence of the particular 
class which seems ready to hazard everything for the success of the 
unjust scheme it has partially elFected, I firmly believe that the 
great heart of the nation, which throbs with the patriotism of the 
freemen of both sections, will have -power to overcome it. They 
will look to the rights secured to them by the Constitution of the 
Union as their best safeguard from the oppression of the class, 
which, by a monopoly of the soil and of slave-labor to till it, might 
in time reduce them to the extremity of laboring upon the same 
terms with the slaves. The great body of non-slaveholding free- 
men, including those of the South, upon whose welfare slavery is 
an oppression, will discover that the power of the general govern- 
ment over the public lands may be beneficially exerted to advance 
their interests and secure their independence. Knowing this, their 
suffrages will not be watv " to maintain that autliority in the 
Union which is absolutely e- ..tial to the maintenance of tlieir own 
liberties, and which has moi han once indicated the purpose of 
disposing of the public landr in such a \»ay as would make every 
settler upon them a freeholder. 



" LETTER TO THE NATIONAL AMEKICANS." 459 

" If the people intrust to me the administration of the govern- 
ment, tlie laws of Congress in relation to the territories will be 
faithfully executed. All its authority will be exerted in aid of the 
national will to re-establish the peace of the country on the just 
principles which have heretofore received the sanction of tlie federal 
government, of the States, and of the people of both sections. Such 
a policy would leave no aliment to that sectional party which seeks 
its aggrandizement by appropriating the new territories to capital 
in the form of slaverj-, but would inevitably result in the triumph 
of free labor — the natural capital which constitutes the real wealth 
of this great country, and creates that intelligent power in the 
masses alone to be relied on as the bulwark of free institutions. 

Trusting that I have a heart capable of comprehending our whole 
country, with its varied interests, and confident that patriotism 
exists in all parts of the Union, I accept the nomination of your 
Convention, in the hope that I may be enabled to serve usefully its 
cause, which I consider the cause of constitutional freedom. 
" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"J. C. Fremont. 
" To Messrs. H. S. Lane, President of the Convention ; James M 
Ashley, Anthony J. Bleecker, Joseph C. Hornblower, E. R 
Hoar, Thaddeus Stevens, Kingsley S. Bingham, John A. Wills, 
0. F. Cleveland, Cyrus Aldrich, Committee, &c." 

Soon after the nominations were made in Philadel- 
phia, a " National American " convention, then in ses- 
sion in New York, tendered the support of that party 
also to Colonel Fremont, who acknowledged the letter 
announcing their determination in the following terms: 

" New York, Jii/ne SO, 1856. 
" Gentlemen: I received with deep sensibility your communica- 
tion, informing me that a convention of my fellow-citizens, recently 
assembled in this city, have nominated me their candidate for the 
highest office in the gift of the American People ; and I desire, , 
through you, to offer to the members of that body, and to their 
respective constituencies, my grateful acknowledgment for tliis dis- 
tinguished expression of confidence. In common with all who are 
interested in the welfare of the country, I had been strongly 



460 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

impressed by the generous spirit of conciliation ■wliicli influenced 
tlie action of your asseniLly and cliaracterizes your note. A dispo- 
sition to avoid all special questions tending to defeat unanimity in 
the great cause, for the sake of which it was conceded that diHer- 
ences of opinion on less eventful questions should be held in abey- 
ance, was evinced alike in the proceedings of your convention in 
reference to me, and in the manner by which j-ou have communi- 
cated the result. In tliis course, no sacrifice of opinion on any side 
becomes necessary. 

" I shall, in a few days, be able to transmit you a paper,* designed 
for all parties engaged in our cause, in which I present to the coun- 
try my views of the leading subjects which are now put in issue in 
the contest for the presidency. My confidence in the success of our 
cause is greatly strengthened by the belief that these views will 
meet the approbation of your constituents. 

"Trusting that the national and patriotic feelings evinced by the 
tender of your co-operation in the work of regenerating the govern- 
ment, may increase the glow of enthusiasm which pervades the 
country, and harmonize all elements in our truly great and common 
cause, I accept the nomination with which you have honored me, 
and am, gentlemen, very respectfully, 

" Your fellow-citizen, 

"J. 0. Feemont." 
Messrs. Thomas H. Ford, Ambrose Stephens, "VV. A. Howard, 

Stephen M. Allen, Simon P. Kase, Thomas Shankland, J. E. 

Dunham, M, 0. Geer — a Committee of the National American 

party. 

Since his nomination, more than half of the political 
journals of the free States have advocated his election, 
and public meetings throughout the country indicate a 
degree of enthusiasm in his support which, taking all 
the circumstances into consideration, is without a paral- 
lel in the history of American politics. His friends 
confidently predict his election by a nearly unanimous 
vote of the free States, and the developments of each 
succeeding day render thein more and more sanguine. 

* Letter of July 8, p. 4.56 et seq. 



CONCLUSION. 46] 



CHAPTEE XIX. 



CONCLUSION. 



Col. Fkemont is now but forty-three years of age, 
Thougli in the prime of life, he is already eminent. 
Before he was thirty he had enrolled his name among 
the most eminent explorers and geographers, and had 
given it to the rivers and the mountains and the pro- 
ductions of the soil, which he was the first to explore. 
Before he was thirty-live, he had emancipated an empire 
from Mexican tyranny, and was unanimously elected its 
governor by those whom he had delivered. When but 
thirty-seven, he was elected to the highest legisla- 
tive dignity in the American republic ; and within the 
last year, his earlier distinctions have been thrown into 
comparative obscurity by his selection as the national 
champion of freedom and civilization in the approaching 
Presidential election. His nomination at Philadelphia 
on tlie 19th of June, gave symmetry and completeness 
to a career which is more commended by its results to 
the American people than that of any man, at his j-ears, 
whom the country has produced. 

Col. Fremont is about five feet nine inches high, slight 
and sinewy in his structure, but gracefully proportioned 
and eminently prepossessing in his personal appearance. 
His eyes are blue and very large, his no?o aquiline, his 



462 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

forelieaJ, over whicli his brown cnrling hair is parted at 
the centre, is higli and capacious. He never sliaves, but 
wears his beard neatly ti-innned. 

His head as well as person are strikingly symmetrical, 
and indicate the compact strength and symmetry of 
character which he has displayed through life. The 
height of his head above the ears also reveals the ele- 
vation of his sentiments and the general benevolence 
and pm-ity of his natm*e. 

Scarcely any trait of his character will impress a 
stranger sooner than his modesty. He never dwells 
upon his own achievements, and rarely alludes to them 
except when specially invited. Even in his reports, his 
own personality is as much concealed as it could be 
without making them unintelligible. He has a soft, 
clear and gentle voice, and in conversation speaks 
deliberately, but with the utmost precision and clear- 
ness. He always knows exactly what he means to say 
when he begins a sentence, and rarely if ever changes 
or repeats a word in the enunciation of it. His mind is 
eminently orderly and logical, and though without any 
propensity for metaphysical speculations, his faculties of 
induction are very superior. Like Washington, whom 
he resembles in many other respects, he generalizes 
with rapidity, but always for practical results, and rarely 
or never to test hypotheses. 

His accomplishments are manifold. Of course he 
understands surveying and engineering ; his reports dis- 
play a familiarity with the sciences of Astronomy, 
Botany, Mineralogy and Geology. He was distinguished 
at school. Dr. Roberton -tells us, for his knowledge of 
the Latin and Greek languages, besides which he sj^eaks 
French and Spanish as fluently as English. It is not too 



CONCLUSION. 463 

much to say that we have had no President since the 
time of Jefferson who could appear to equal advan- 
tage, or fill so exalted a seat, in the literary or scientific 
circles of his generation. 

In his manners he is eminently well bred and refined, 
ai]d always prepossesses a new acquaintance in his favor. 
He is sensitive to anything affectyig his character, but 
glow to take oflfence, or to suspect the motives of men. 
He has twice in his life appealed to what is termed the 
code of honor, but never for the redress of merely per- 
sonal wrongs. In both instances, the particulars of 
which are recorded in the foregoing pages, he was the 
victim of a combination formed to break down a party 
and principles of which he happened to occupy the 
position of a protector- In the affair with Senator Foote, 
he represented the party of freedom in California, and 
as the son-in-law of Col. Benton, was a very suitable 
target for the archery of that class of politicians who 
had felt that the best, if not the only way of securing 
an innnunitj for their own mischievous designs, was to 
drive that fearless statesman from the Senate, and if pos- 
sible, from public life. Had Col. Fremont tolerated the 
iir^t insult, it would have been repeated with aggrava- 
tions in twenty-four hours. He saw that liis usefulness as 
a senator, and his influence as a public man depended 
upon his putting an end at once to the impression, if it 
existed in any quarter, that his character could be 
trifled with by any one. For such a purpose he was 
vilhng to risk his life. 

In the case of Mason, he thought he saw a disposition 
to sacrifice him for having presumed to win sudden dis- 
tinction in the army by unusual services, without the 
aid of a diploma from "West Point. In five years he 



404 LIFK AND SKRVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

liad risen to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the army, 
over the heads of hundreds of officers who had enjoyed 
better opportunities tlian he of doing what he had done, 
but who lacked tlie necessary ability, or ambition. 

When Col. Fremont detected this jealousy, and felt 
the indignities which were the fruit of it, he suddenly 
found himself the representative and champion of the 
small but valuable class of men who, by extraordinary 
devotion to their profession, provoke the envy of the 
larger and meaner class who are unwilling to make 
similar exertions or sacrifices. If he had submitted to 
Mason's insolence, patiently, he would have proved 
recreant to the class of which he was the exponent, and 
have forsaken the high position he had secured, 
and which, by the course he pursued, he not only 
maintained, but entrenched imprognably. Had he 
yielded, ho would never have received the compliment 
soon afterwards paid him by President Taylor, and 
which he properly interpreted as a deliberate justifica- 
tion of his conduct, from the highest military as well as 
civil authority in the country. Except in cases where 
the rights and interests of others were, to some extent, in 
his keeping, Col. Fremont has never appealed to the 
code of honor for the redress of personal wrongs. 

His domestic tastes are very decided, and he has a 
rooted aversion to the ordinary metropolitan gaieties. 
He is extremely temperate in his habits, though he 
makes no merit of it, and does not use tobacco in any 
form, nor profane language ; three peculiarities which 
distinguish him honorably from most of our public 
men. 

In all the manifold relations of father, husband, friend 
and neighbor, his character is unimpeached and uniin- 



RELIGION. 465 

peacliable. He was confirmed as a member of the Protes- 
tant E2)iscopal church in Charleston, when he was sixteen 
years of age, and at a time when he was under very pro- 
found religious convictions. He became so much absorbed 
by the subject of religion at this time, as to inspire his 
iriends with a general expectation that he would devote 
liimself to the ministry. He used to study and commit 
chapter after chapter of the Bible to memory — some- 
times as many as three hundred verses a day — and 
fatigued his instructors with the length of his biblical 
recitations. Upon leaving Charleston and embarking 
in the career which has occupied his adult life, he has 
rarely enjoyed the privilege of worshipping in a Chris- 
tian country. He has had all his children, however, 
baptized in the Episcopal church, and since his return 
to the United States, has been in the habit of attending 
the churches of that denomination. 

As" a candidate for the presidency, Col. Fremont 
enjoys some rare advantages over any competitor for 
that honor, for he is not identified with any old political 
controversies, except the one which constitutes the con- 
trolling issue in the present canvass. Though a demo- 
crat from principle, and by political association, he has 
never been a partisan, and though always opposed to 
the extension of slavery, his name has never been asso- 
ciated with any of the lateral issues to which that insti- 
tution has given rise. Though never a politician, and 
with but little experience as a statesman, no man of his 
age was so univei-sally, and, at the same time, so favor- 
ably known to the whole country, when his name was 
suggested as the leader of the party of freedom. His 
adventures and discoveries had been the theme of con- 
versation and of inexhaustible wonder in every village 



466 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

and hamlet tlirongliout the Union, and "none named 
hhn but to praise." lie was not therefore, an unknown 
man in any part of his country, though he had pro- 
bably never attended a political caucus in his life. 

But he has other qualities which specially commend 
him to his countrymen at the present time; a courage 
which renders him insensible to any form of intimida- 
tion, and a coolness and caution which are equally 
important guaranties against impetuosity and indis- 
cretion. If he is elected, no one supposes that he will be 
afraid to act aiccording to his inclinations or convictions, 
and every one feels that we have long stood much in need 
of such a President. The country is rapidly approach- 
ing a crisis when the civilization of half a century will 
be staked upon the firmness, wisdom and justice of our 
chief magistrate. Fremont is looked upon by the great 
body of his countrymen in the free States, as the fittest 
exponent of the highest and best interests of civiliza- 
tion that has been named in connection with the presi- 
dency for many years. He is identified in their minds 
with the great struggle for freedom on this continent, 
and upon his success or failure, the hopes of many, for the 
future of this republic, are suspended. « 



II 



APPENDIX. 



[A] 

REPORT OF SENATOR BREESE, OF ILLINOIS. 

UNITED STATES SENATE, AUGUST 1, 1848. 

JTie Select Committee, to whom was referred the resolution of tht 
Senate to inquire into the expediency of providing for the publica- 
tion of the result of the late Exploring Expedition of John. C. 
Fremont to California and Oregon, to be published as a national 
worJc, free from copyright, and subject to the disposition of Con- 
gress ; and also to inquire into the expediency of providing for the 
continuation and completion of the Surveys and Explorations of 
the said John C. Fremont, with a view to detelope the geographical 
character of the country, and the practicability of establishing 
railroads or other communications between the Valley of the 
Mississip>pi and, the Pacific Ocean, the result of said farther Sur- 
veys and Explorations to be also published as a national work, 
free from copyright, and subject to the disposition of Congresa 
respectfully ash leave to report: 

That it is a matter of great public interest, the committee 
believe, for the government and for the people of the United 
States to become accurately acquainted with the value of the 
large possessions, now belonging to the United States, beyond 
the Rocky Mountains, and also "with the means of communi- 
cating with those possessions and with the Pacific Ocean, on 
which they border, by railroads or other modes of travel and 
conveyance ; and the committee believe, from the knowledge 

467^ 



468 LTTK AKD SERVICES OF JOHN C. FRKMANT. 

tbey have of the inclination of Mr. Fremont's mind, his habits 
and pursuits, and his already great ftequaintance with the coun- 
tries in question, acquired through extraordinary perseverance, 
to be peculiarly well fitted to give to the government and to the 
people the information it is so desirable for them to possess in 
relation to the value of California and Oregon, and the means of 
communicating v?ith them. 

From the early age of seventeen, as the committee, are 
informed, Mr. Fremont has been almost constantly engaged in 
astronomical and geographical pursuits, and nearly the whole 
time in the open field, and the last six years in the country 
beyond the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains. He has made 
three expeditions to those remote and interesting regions. The 
results of the two first were published by order of Congress, and 
commanded general applause both in this country and in Ei^rope. 
The celebrated Baron Humboldt, and the President of the Royal 
Geological and Royal Geographical Societies, London, havespoten 
of them in most favorable terms, and eminent scientific men and 
journals of our own country have yielded equal commendation, 
(See appendix to this report.) An assistant of the celebrated 
Nicollet who was a distinguished member of the French National 
Institute, he has reached a most commanding position as a scien- 
tific explorer, and achieved for himself the designation of the 
American Humboldt. 

The first question with the committee was to inquire into the 
expediency of publishing, as a national work free of copyright, 
and subject to the disposition of Congress, the results of this last 
or third expedition of Mr. Fremont; and, although favorably 
impressed with the value of these results, from the previous 
labors and character of the author, it was deemed proper to 
inquire into the real character of the proposed publication, 
means for forming some judgment on this point being already at 
hand in the manuscript map of Oregon and California, (now in 
the hands of the lithographer, and which several of the com- 
mittee have examined), and also in the geographical memoir to 



KEPOKT OF SENATOR BREE8E, 469 

illustrate that map, published by order of the Senate, and which, 
it is presumed, all have read. This map and memoir, in the 
judgment of the committee, not only sustain the previous repu- 
tation of the author, but enhance it, as might well be expected 
from a more ripened intellect, from a more experienced explorer 
and from a spirit ardent in the pursuit of science, and excited 
by applause to higher exertions. This map and memoir, though 
hastily prepared, and as a mere preliminary to a full woi'k, 
increase the reputation of their author, and give valuable infor- 
mation to the statesman and the farmer, to the astronomer and 
geographer, to the man of science in the walks of botany and 
meteorology. But they must be regarded only as a sample of 
the results of that expedition, from the view of which the value 
of the whole may be judged. As far as the exploration has been 
carried, everything necessary to show climate, soil, and produc- 
tions, has been collected. More than one thousand specimens in 
botany, a great number in geology and mineralogy, with draw- 
ings of birds and animals, and remarkable scenery, and a large 
collection of the skins of birds, with the plumage preserved, 
have been, as the committee are informed, brought home, to 
enrich the stores and add to the sum of human knowledge. 
The botanical specimens, examined by Dr. Torrey, are deemed 
by him of great value, and worthy of the expense of European 
engraving, if not done by our own government. 

The committee iipon this view of the results of the last 
expedition of Mr. Fremont, deem them of great national 
importance, giving just ideas of Oregon and California, and 
such as ought to be published in the msftmer suggested 
in the resolution imder consideration. The continuation of 
the surveys and explorations by Mr. Fremont, with a view to 
complete our knowledge of the great country between the 
Mississippi and the Pacific ocean, is the remaining inquiry 
referred to this committee ; and of the expediency of providing 
for such continuation they entertain no doubt. It is, in their 
judgment, but carrying out the plain suggestion of reason, and 



470 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

the plan of Mr. Jefferson, when he sent Lewis and Clark to th 
Pacific ocean. 

The committee think they do not err when they assume it as 
an indisputable position, that the public interest and the wishes 
of the people require further examinations into the character of 
the soil, climate and productions ; the geology, botany, and 
mineralogy of Oregon and California ; and also into the prac- 
ticability of railroad and other communications betweeu those 
countries and the valley of the Mississippi, to which the public 
attention has been lately, and is now, so much excited, and they 
do not hesitate to say, that Mr. Fremont is one of the most, if not 
the most, suitable person to make these examinations, and a 
publication of the results, under the dii'ection of Congress, and 
without copyright, as the most judicious and advantageous mode 
of publication. Mr. Fremont has spent six years of his life in 
explorations to these distant regions, and in that time has 
crossed the Rocky Mountains, as the committee are informed, 
at seven different points ; has traversed the country from the 
Mississippi on several different lines, and has made about twenty 
thousand miles of exploration in wilderness countries, and under- 
stands thoroughly, there is no doubt, the general structure and 
configuration of the country, and knows where to go and what 
to do to complete his examinations. He has shown himself to 
be possessed of all the qualifications for such an enterprise, with 
resources to supply wants, to conquer difficulties, and to com- 
*maud success — and talent to execute his task to the satisfaction 
and admiration of his own countrymen, and of the first men in 
Europe, « 

The committee learn with pleasure that it is Mr. Fremont's 
own desire to finish up the great work in which he was so 
unexpectedly interrupted in the course of the last year. No 
other person probably could, for the reasons stated, do the work 
so well, or in so short a time, or at so small an expense. No 
other person could be employed in the work without appropria- 
ting to himself the fruits of his long and arduous labors, and 






REPORT, ETC. 471 

building upon foundations which he has laid, and taking the 
credit of operations which only want the finishing hand of their 
author to erect a monument of honor to himself and of utility to 
his country. It therefore seems but an act of justice to this 
individual that he should be continued in a work which he 
commenced, and has thus far so successfully prosecuted. 

In his geographical memoir, printed by order of the Senate, 
Mr. Fremont proposes to continue and complete his explorations 
in Oregon and California, and to publish the results under the 
direction of Congress, as a national work, and without copy- 
right. It is the mode in which the results of his previous expe- 
ditions have been published, and with great advantage to the 
public, as all will acknowledge, his journals and maps being 
reprinted, and multiplied in cheap editions, as well in Europe as 
in this country, and thus all his discoveries, and all the informa- 
tion he acquired, passing at once into the mass of general know, 
ledge. It is deemed by the committee, the proper mode of dis- 
seminating useful information obtained at the expense of the 
government, and which should be diffused at once without the 
impediment of copyrights, and the author, where deserving it, 
compensated in some other form for any extraordinary service 
which he has rendered. * * * * 

The committee, therefore, feeling all the reasons in favor of 
such explorations, to be greatly increased by the recent acquisi- 
tion of California, and the exclusive possession of Oregon, and 
where so much has been done towards exploring Oregon and 
California, ascertaining practicable routes for a railroad or other 
communications between the Valley of the Mississippi and the 
Pacific Ocean, and for publishing the results as a national work 
under the direction of Congress, and without a copyright ; 
they have with one accord directed their chairman to move the 
necessary appropriation, to wit, $30,000, being the amount usually 
appropriated for topographical surveys beyond the Mississippi. 



472 LIFE AND SKKVICE8 OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 



EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM THE HON. EDWARD EVERETT. 

Cambridge, Mass., March 20, 1846. 

" Dear Sir : A short time since, I sent two copies of the 
Congressional documents, containing- Captain Fremont's two 
repoi-ts, to London, one to Doctor Holland (who spoke of you 
with great kindness on his return to Boston,) and one to Sir R. I. 
Murchison, late president both of the Geological and Geogra- 
phical societies, and one of the most eminent British geologists. 
In a letter received from the last named gentleman, by the 
steamer of the 4th March, he speaks in the following terms of 
Captain Fremont's report : 

" ' The work of Captain Fremont so much interested me, (it is 
really the most romantic, as well as instructive survey,) that I 
wrote out a little analysis of it, for the president of our geologi 
cal society, Mr. Horner,* and if he has not space enough to do 
it justice in his anniversary discourse, I will take care that the 
excellent services of your countryman, are duly noticed in the 
speech of Lord Colchester, my successor as President of the 
Royal Geographical Society. Knowing your connection with 
Captain Fremont, I have thought it might be some satisfaction 
to you to leain that his labors were appreciated by good judges 
abroad, I should long since have made him my personal 
acknowledgments for the gratification and instruction which I 
have derived from his reports, had I had the honor of his 
acquaintance. I should have sent more copies to England could 
I have procured them.' " 






[B.] 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER FROM THE UNITED STATES 
CONSUL, WARREN, TRIESTE. 

" I travelled, not as I first intended, over Hamburgh and Berlin 
to this city, but took a passage to Leghorn, from which place I 

*Mr. Lyell's father-in-law. 



PACIFTC RAILROAD. 473 

proceeded to Trieste; I availed myself of a favorable oppor- 
tunity to forward the books which you intrusted to my care, to 
Baron von Humboldt. During the month I obtained a short 
leave of absence from my post, and.proceeded to the north of 
Germany. Whilst at Berlin, I had an interview with ISaron von 
Humboldt. He bade me thank you for the present with which 
you had so favored him. He had already in his possession 'Fre- 
mont's reports,' but not Nicollet's work. He put some ques- 
tions to me in relation to yourself, your political careei', your 
age, and so forth, to which I gave full replies. He then inquired 
in relation to Col. Fremont, whose work he said had been read 
bv him with m-eat interest as the work of a man of talent, 
courage, industry, and enterprise. These were the words literally 
used by Mr. von Humboldt. 

" Extracts from the reports which have made their appearance 
in many of the German papers, and the scientific world (through 
the republication of the work by Wiley & Putnam in London), 
has become generally acquainted with it ; and I can saj truly, 
from the conversation I have had on the subject with many men 
entitled to a judgment, it is appreciated as a very able work." 

[C] 

PACIFIC RAILROAD. 

LKTTEK FROM COLONEL FREMONT GIVING THE RESULTS OF HIS 

FIFTH EXPEDITION IN 1854: 5, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE 

MOST PRACTICABLE ROUTE FOR A RAILWAY TO THE PACIFIC. 

To the Editoi's of the National Intelligencer : 

Gentlemen: While the proceedings in Congress are occu- 
pying public attention, more particularlj- with tlie subject of a 
Pacitic Railway, I desire to oti'er to your paper, for publication, 
t;ume general results of a recent winter exjfedition across tlie Plocky 
Mountains, confining myself to mere results, in anticipation of a 
fuller report, with majjs and illustrations, which will necessarily 
require some months to prepare. 

The country exaniined was for about three-fuurtlis of the dis- 



4:74 LT/fE AND 8EKVICE8 OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

tance — from the Missouri frontier, at tlie mouth of the Kansas 
river, to tlie valley of Parawan, at the foot of the Wahsatch Moun- 
tains, witiiin the rim of the CJreat Basin, at its southeastern heml — 
along and between tlie 38tli and 39th parallels of latitude; and the 
AvlK)le line divides itself naturally into three sections, which may 
be conveniently followed in description. 

Tim. Jlrst or eastern section consists of the j^rcut prairie slope, 
spreading from the base of the Sierra Blanca to the Missouri frontier, 
about 700 iniles; the second or middle section, comprehends the 
various Rocky Mountain ranges and interlying valleys, between the 
termination of the Great Plains at the foot of the Sierra Blanca, 
and the Great Basin of the Parawan Valley and Wahsatch Moun- 
tains, where the first Mormon settlement is found, about 450 miles ; 
the third or western section comprehends the mountainous plateau 
lying between the Wahsatch Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, a 
distance of about 400 miles. 

The country examined was upon a very direct line, the travelled 
route being about 1,550 miles over an air-line distance of about 
1,300 miles. 

The First Section. — Four separate expeditions across this section, 
made before tlie present one, and which carried me over various 
lines at ditferent seasons of the year, enable me to speak of it with 
the confidence of intimate knowledge. It is a plain of easy incli- 
nation, sweeping directly up to the foot of the mountains wbieh 
dominate it as highlands do tlie ocean. Its character is open 
pi'airie, over which summer travelling is made in every direction. 

For a railway or a winter-travelling road, the route would be, in 
consideration of wood, coal, building-stone, water, and fertile land, 
about two hundred miles up the immediate valley of Kansas 
(which might be made one rich continuous cornfield), and after- 
wards along the immediate valley of the Upper Arkansas, of wliich 
about two hundred miles, as you approach the mountains, is conti- 
nuously well adapted to settlements as well as to roads. Numerous 
well watered and fertile valleys — broad and level — open up among 
the mountains, which present themselves in detached blocks — out- 
liers — gradually closing in around the heads of the streams, but 
leaving open approaches to the central ridges. The whole of the 
inter-mountain region is abundant in grasses, wood, coal, and fertile 
soil. The Pueblos above Bent's Fort, prove it to be well adapted 
to the grains and vegetables common to the latitude, including 
Indian corn, which ripens well, and to the support of healtliy 
stock, which increase well and take care of themselves summer 
and winter. 

The climate is mild and the winters short, the autumn usually 
having its full length of bright open weather, without snow, which 
in winter falls rarely and passes off quickly. In this belt of country 
lying along the mountains, the snow falls more early and mupi\ 



I 



PACIFIC EAILKOAD. 475 

more thinly than in the open plains to the eastward ; the storms 
congregate ahont tlie high mountains and leave tlie valleys tree. In 
the beginning of December we found yet no snow on tlie Iluerfano 
River, and were informed by an old resident, tlieu engaged in estab- 
lisliing a farm at the mouth of this stream, that snow seldom or 
never falls there, and that cattle were left in the range all tlie winter 
through. 

Tliis character of country continued to the foot of the dividing 
crest, and to this point our journey resulted in showing a very 
easy grade for a road, over a country unobstructed either by snow 
or other impediments, and liaving all tlie elements necessary to the 
prosperity of an agricultural population, in fertility of soil, abund- 
ance of food for stock, wood and coal for fuel, and timber for 
necessary constructions. 

Our examinations around the southern headwaters of the Arkansas, 
have made us acquainted witli many passes, grouped together in a 
small space of country, conducting by short and practicable valleys 
from the waters of the Arkansas just described, to the valleys of the 
Del JVorte and East Colorado. The Sierra Blanca^ through whicli 
these passes lie, is high and rugged, presenting a very broken appear- 
ance, but rises abruptly from the open country on eitlier side, nar- 
rowed at the points through wliich the passes are cut, leaving them 
only six or eight miles in length from valley to valley, and entirely 
unobstructed by outlying ranges or broken country. To the best 
of these passes the ascent is along the open valley of watercourses, 
uuiforni and very gradual in ascent. Standing immediately at tlie 
mouth of the Sand Hill Pass — one of the most practicable in tlie 
Siei'ra Blajica, and above those usually travelled— at one of the 
remotest headsprings of the Iluerfano River, tlie eye of the travel- 
ler follows down without obstruction or abrupt descent along the 
gradual slope of the valley to the great plains which reach the 
Missouri. The straight river and the open valley form, with the 
plains beyond, one great slope, without a hill to break the line of 
sight or obstruct the course of the road. On either side of this 
line hills slope easily to the river, with lines of timber and yellow 
autumnal grass, and the water, which flows smoothly between, is not 
interrupted by a fall in its course to the ocean. The surrounding 
country is wooded with pines and covered with luxuriant grasses, 
up to the very crags of the central summits. On the 8th of 
December we found this whole country free from snow and 
Daguerre views taken at this time show the grass entirely uncov- 
ered in the passes. 

Along all this line the elevation was carefully determined by 
frequent barometrical observations, and its character exhibited by a 
series of daguerreotype views, comprehending the face of the 
country almost continuously, or at least sufficiently so, to give a 
thoroughly correct impression of the whole. 



476 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

Two tnnnel-like passes pierce the mountains here, almost in 
juxtaposition, connecting the plain country on eitiier side by short 
passages five to eight miles long. Tlie mountains which they per- 
forate constitute tiie only obstruction, and are tlio only break in the 
plane or valley line of road from the frontier of Missouri to the 
summit liills of the Rocky Mountains, a distance of about 850 
miles, or more than half way to the San Joaquin valley. Entering 
one of these passes from the eastern plain, atlistance of about one 
mile upon a wagon road, already travelled by wagons, commands 
an open view of the broad valley of San Luis and the great range 
of San Juan beyond on its western side. I here connected the 
line of the present expedition with one explored in 1.848-'49 from 
the mouth of the Kansas to this point, and the results of both will 
be embodied in a full report. 

At this place the line entered the middle section, and continued 
its western coarse over an open valle}' country, admirably adapted 
for settlement, across the San Luis valley, and up the flat bottom 
lands of the Sah-watch to the heights of the central ridge of the 
Rocky Mountains. Across those wooded heigfits — wooded and 
grass-covered up to and over tiieir rounded summits — to the 
Coocha-to-pe pass, the line followed an open easy wagon-way, 
sucli as is usual to a rolling country. Ou the high summit 
lands were forests of coniferous trees, and the snow in the pass 
■was four_ inches deep. This was on the 14th of December. A 
day earlier our liorses' feet would not have touched snow in the 
crossing. Up to this point we had enjoyed clear and dry pleasant 
weather. Our journey had been all along on dry ground; and 
travelling slowly along waiting for the winter, there had been abun- 
dant leisure for becoming acquainted with the country. The open 
character of the country, joined to good information, indicated the 
existence of other passes about the head of the Sah-watch. This 
it was desirable to verify, and especially to examine a neighboring 
and lower pass connecting more directly with the Arkansas valley, 
known as the Poow-che. 

But the winter had now set in over all the mountain regions, 
and the country was so constantly enveloped and hidden in clouds 
wiiich rested upon it, and the air so darkened by falling snow, that 
exploring became ditfieult and dangerous, precisely wliere we felt 
most interested in making a thorough examination. We were mov- 
ing in fogs and clouds, through a region wholly unknown to us, and 
without guides, and were therefore obliged to content ourselves 
witli the examination of a single line, and the ascertainment of the 
winter condition of the country over which it passed; which was 
in fact the main object of our expedition. 

Our progress in this mountainous region was necessarily slow, 
and during ten days which it occupied us to pass through about one 
hundred miles of the mountainous country bordering the eastern 



PACIFIC KAILROAD. 4:77 

side of the Upper Colorado valley, the greatest depth of snow was, 
among the j)ities and as[)ens, oq the ridges about two and a half 
feet, and in tiic valleys abont six inclies. Tlte atmosphere is too 
cold and dry for much snow, and the valleys, protected by the 
mountains, are comparatively free from it, and warm. We here 
found villages of Utah Indians in their wintering ground, in little 
valleys ah)ng tlte foot of the highest mountains and bordering the 
more open country of the Colorado valley. Snow was here 
(December 25) only a few inches deep — the grass generally a{)pear- 
ing above it, and there being none uuder trees and on southern hill- 
sides. 

The horses of the Utahs were living on the range, and notwith- 
standing that they were used in huntitig, were in excellent condition. 
One which we had occasion to kill for food had on it about two 
inclies of fat, being in as good order as any buffalo we had killed 
in Ifovember on the eastern plains. Over this valley country — 
about 150 miles across — the Indians informed us that snow falls 
only a few inches in depth, such as we saw it at the time. 

The immediate valley of the' Upper Colorada for about 100 miles 
in breath, and from the 7tli to the 22d of January, was entirely 
bare of snow, and the weather resembled that of autumn in '■Jus 
country. Tiie line here entered the body of mountains known as 
the Wasatch and Chu-ter-ria ranges, which are practicable at seve- 
ral places in this part of their course; but the falling snow and 
destitute condition of n\y party again interfered to impede examin- 
ations. They lie between the Colorado vaUey and the Great Basin, 
and at their western base are established the Mormon settlements of 
Parawan and Cedar City. They are what are called fertile moun- 
tains, abundant in water, wood, and grass, and fertile valleys, offer- 
ing inducements to settlement and facilities for making a road. 
These mountains are a great store-house of materials — timber, 
iron, coal — which would be of indispensable use in the construc- 
tion and maintenance of the road, and are solid foundations to 
build up the future prosperity of the rapidly-increasing Utah 
State. 

Salt is abundant on the eastern border mountains, as the Sierra 
de Sal^ being named from it. In the ranges lying behind the Mor- 
mon settlements, among the mountains through which the line 
passes, are accumulated a great wealth of iron and coal, and exten- 
sive forests of heavy timber. These forests are the largest I am 
acquainted with in the Eocky Mountains, being in some places 
twenty miles in depth of continuous forest; the general growth 
lofty and large, frequently over three feet in diameter, and some- 
times reaching five feet, the red spruce and yellow pine predomi- 
nating. At the actual southern extremity of the Mormon settle- 
ments, consisting of the two enclosed towns of Parawan and Cedar 
City, near to which our line passed, a coal mine has been opened 



478 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FREMONT. 

for about eighty yards, and iron works already established. Iron 
here occurs in extraordinary masses, in some parts accumulated into 
inuuntains, wliich come out in crests of solid iron thirty feet thick 
and a hundred yards long. 

In passing througli this bed of mountains about fourteen days 
had been occupied, from January 2-l:th to February 7th, tlie deepest 
snow we here encountered being about up to tbe saddle-skirts, or 
four feet ; this occurring only in occasional drifts ill the passes oi: 
northern exposures, and in the small mountain flats hemmed in by 
woods and hills. In the valley it was sometimes a few incites deep, 
and as often none at all. On our arrival at the Mormon settlements, 
February 8th, we found it a few inches deep, and were there 
informed that the winter had been unusually long-contiimed and 
severe, the thermometer having been as low as 17'^ below zero, and 
moi-e snow having fallen than in all the previous winters together 
since the establishment of this colony. 

At this season their farmers had usually been occupied with their 
ploughs, preparing tlie land for grain. 

At this point the line of exploration entered the third or western 
section, comprehending the n\ovinta\\\on^ plateau between the Wah- 
satch Mountains and the Sierra Nevada of California. Two routes 
have suggested themselves to me for examination, one directly 
across the plateau., between the 37th and 38th i)arallels; the other 
keeping to the south of the mountains and following fur about 200 
miles down a valley of the Rio Vir(je>i — Virgin River — thence 
direct to the Tejon Pass, at the head of the San Joaipiin valley. 
This route down the Virgin River hii.d been examined the year 
before with a view to settlement this summer by a Mormon explor- 
ing party under the command of Major Steele of Parawan, who 
(and others of the party) informed nie that they found fertile val- 
leys inhabited by Indians who cultivated corn and melons, and the 
rich ground in many places matted over with grape vines. The 
Tejon Passes are two, one of them (from the abundance of vines at 
its lower end) called Gaxon de las LFcas. They were of long use, 
and were examined by me and their practicability ascertained in my 
expedition of 1848-49, and in 1851 I again passed through them 
both, bringing three thousand head of cattle through one of 
them. 

Knowing the practicability of these passes, and confiding in the 
report of Major Steele as to the intermediate country, I determined 
to take the other (between the 37th and 38th parallels), it recom- 
mending itself to me as being more direct towards San Francisco, 
and preferable on that account. for a road, if suitable ground could 
be found; and also as being unknown. The Mormons informed nic, 
that various attempts had been made to explore it, and all failed 
for want of water. Although biased iu favor of the Virgin River 
route, I determined to examine this one in the interest of geogra- 



PACIFIC RAILROAD. 479 

pby, and accordingly set out for tliis purpose fro:ii the scttlcimMit 
about the 20th of February, travelling directly westward tVoru 
Cedar City (oiixiitct-n miles west of Parawan). We found tiie country 
I a high table land, bristling with mountains, often in short isolated 
blocks, and sometimes accumulated into considerable ranges, with 
numerous open and low ])as3es. 

We were thus always in a valley and always surrounded by niuim- 
taius more or less closely, whicli apparently altered in sliaj)e and 
position as we advanced. The valleys are dry and naked, witiu)ut 
water or wood; but the mountains are generally covered with 
grass and well wooded with piues; springs are very rare, and occa- 
sionally small streains are at remote distances. Not a huniau being 
was encounterel between the Santa Clara road, near the Mormon 
Settlements and the Sierra Nevada^ over a distance of more than 
300 miles. The solitary character of this uninhabited region, tiio 
naked valleys without watercourses, among mountains Witli fertile 
soil and grass and woods abundant, give it the appearance of mx 
unfinished country. 

Commencing on the 38th, we struck the Sierra Nevuda on or 
about the 37th parallel about the 15th March. 

On our route across we had for the greater part of the time plea- 
sant and rather warm weather; the valley grounds and low ridges 
uncovered, but snow over the upper parts of the higher mountiuns. 
Between tlie 20th of February and 17th of March we had several 
snow-storms, sometimes accompanied with hail and heavy thunder; 
but the snow remained on the valley ground only a few hours after 
the storm was over. It forms not tlie least impediment at any lime 
of tiie winter. I was prepared to find the Sierra here broad, 
rug^d, and blocked up with snow, and was not disappointed in my 

■ expectation. The first ran^ we attempted to cross carried us to an 
elevation of 8,000 or 9,000 feet and into impassable snow, which 
was further increasedon the 16tii by a considerable fall. 

There was no object in forcing a passage, ami I accordingly turned 
at once some sixty or eighty miles to the southward, making a wide 
sweep to strike the Point of the California Mountain wiiere the 
Sierra Nevada suddenly breaks oft" and declines into a lower coun- 
try-. Information obtained years before from tlie Indians led me to 
believe, that the low mountains were broken into many passes, and 
at all events I had the certainty of an easy passage through either 
of Walker's passes. 

When the Boint was reached I found the Indian information fully 
/verified; the mountain suddenly terminated and broke down into 
lower grounds barely above the level of the country, and nuikiiig 
immerous openings into the valley of the San Joaquin. I entered 

■ into the first whicli offered (taking no, time to search, as we were 
entirely out of provisions and living upon horses), which led us 
by an open and almost level hollow thirteen miles long to an 



4^0 LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN C. FKEMONT. 

Upland not .steep enough to be called a liili, over into tlie valley tff 
a small affluent to Kern Eiver; the hollow and the valley inaking 
together a way where a wagon would not tind any obstruction im 
forty miles. 1 

Tlie country around tlie passes in which the S!i;ira Nevada hciij 
terminates, declines considerably below its more northern eleva-i 
tions. Tliero was no snow to be seen at all on its eastern face, and 
none in the pass; but we were in the midst of opening spring, 
flowers blooming in fields on both sides of the Sierra. 

Between the point of the mountains and tlie head of the valky 
at the Tejon the passes generally are free from snow throughout 
the year, and the descent from them to the ocean is distributed' 
over a long slope of more than 200 miles. The low dry cotmti-y 
and the long slope, in contradistinction to the high country and 
short sudden descent and heavy snows of the ])asses behind tiie bay 
of San Francisco, are among the considerations whicii suggest them- 
selves in favor of tlie route by tlie head of the San Joaquin. 

Tlie above results embody general impressions made upon my 
mind during this journey. It is clearly established, that the winter 
condition of the country constitutes no impediment, and from whnt 
has been said, the entire practicability of the line will be us clearly 
inferred. A fuller account hereafter will comprehend detailed 
descriptions of the country, with their absolute and relatrve eleva- 
tions, and show the ground upon which the conclusions were 
based. They are contributed at this time as an element to aid the 
public in forming an opinion on the subject of the projected rail- 
way, and in gratiti cation of my great desire to do something for its 
advancement. It seems a treason against mankind and the s[)irit 
of progress which marks the age, to refuse to put this one com- 
pleting Unk to our national prosperity and the civilization of tliQ 
world. Europe still lies between Asia and America: build this rail- 
road and things will have revolved about : America will lie between, 
Asia and Europe — the golden vein which runs through the history 
of the world will follow the iron track to San Fransisco, and the 
Asiatic trade will finally fall into its last and permanent road, 
when the new and tlie modern Cliryse throw open their gates to 
the thoroughfare of the world. 

I am, gentlemen, with much regard, respectfully yours, 

J. 0. Feemont. < 
Washington, June 18. * 



FINIS. 



COURT OF 



EULOGIO F. DE CELTS, 
OF EULOGIO DE Ct 
STATES. 



This case baviuj^ ^^ 
upou the evideuce, 

L The daims s^ 
the Senate of the 
a copy of the or 
filed herein, ar 

IL Subseq- 
ted to prose 
trator on b 
Cal., Oct' 

lu. r 

Fretno 
the i> 

COD 



volunteers organized in California 

'earny, then in California with a 

ei by rank and by orders from 

-'.r in-chief of the land forces of 

mands of General Kearny, 
raising and attempting to 
'ned force contrary to the 
nch part of his battalion 
United States to Yerba 
himself to be, and in 
other acts of insubor- 
^anuary IG, 1847, and 
♦executing tbe prom- 
said Fremont was 
ty-three specifica 
8, and was sen- 

rder, of which 



t the facts 

f opinion 

lid that 

court. 

^tion 

ous 



and general public interest throughout the counti ;) 
occurrence, and complete and trustworthy narrati j 
records thereof have long since been spread before th( i| 
the proceedings of a general court-martial, held at Wa; .^i 
and 1848, for the trial of Colonel Fremont, which wer q| 
to Congress by the President, and printed in an executi \ 
well as through other Congressional documents and th r( 
tings of trustworthy authors. {First session of Thirtiet „ t| 
Executive Documents of ^Senate, Nos. 33 and 70; Report o^, 
ate^ Xo. 75; Report of Committee, House, No. 817; Ri^ 
Mexico, vol. 1, 1849; The Mexican War, by Mansfield , 184 
War between the United States and Mexico, by JenJcini 
History of California, 1846; Bigeloic^s Life of Colonel Fn \ 
ham''s Life of J. C. Fremont, 1856; Memoirs of Gen. W. ^ 
1,1875.) • 'I 

The claimant has not proved and does not rely ui 
authority conferred upon Colonel Fre:uont to contract 
on the part of the United States, set forth in the pe 
upon implied authority which he assumes that officer ^ 
his official relations to the government and the circums' , 
he was placed, as shown or known only tlirough sourcesi/l 
of a historical and official character, open alike to tlie i.j 
court. ,. 

The court will take judicial notice of the leading", 
events in the history" of the country and of the official '„ ,,•' 
priuci)>al actors therein to the government; and, in ehn ^'i 
also of less important transactions of general and pul[ 
mediately connected therewith, when they have passec • | 
receivetl authentic history. ' 

The operations of the military and naval officers of tb' " 
n the conquest of California, and immediately subsequtS 
the action of the executive and legislative branches of ^ 
thereon, so far as they were of a public nature and i, 
relation of Colonel Fremont, who performed a leading !,' 
part therein, to the national* government, and his antl. 
authority to bind the United States by contracts entere, 
the official capacity which he cUiimed as " governor of C ; 
be regarded now, after the lapse of more than thirty ye^ 
torical facts of public and general notoriety as may heJ 
taken notice of by the court, especially as neither part; 
other facts by which his authority can be determined. i 

In Meade Vs. The United States (9 Wall., 691), on .^^ 
court, the judges of the Sui)rerae Court took judicial no • 
and national political fiicts bearing upon the merits 
much less general and public interest, notoriety, andcoii' 
material facts to which we shall have occasion to refer > 
and acted upon their own views thereof, independent' 



lieutenant colouel of the then new regiment of m< jS -"d 
had already distinguished himself bj' his intre\ia':''>ty 
wo expeditions of exploration across the continent, was 
! government at Washigton at the head of a third ex- 
character, and especially instructed to lind, if possible, 
T route from the base of the western side of the liocky 
le mouth of the Columbia Eiver. 

alifornia, then Mexican territory, some time in the winter 
I charged in his instructions not to provoke hostilities 
ans, he at once sought an interview with the governor, 
sily obtained from him oral permission to go where he 
rernor kindly saying that the whole country was open to 
uission Fremont could not obtain in writing as he desired, 
I revoked by the governor, who ordered the young ex- 
party forthwith to leave the country, and followed up the 
stile array of a small force of infantry, cavalry, and artil- 
g the camp of the exploring party, but making no actual 

.ious to continue peaceably the important and interesting 

he had been sent out, and then earnestly ilevoted to the 

y, seeing no prospects of being jiermitted to remain in 

ry unmolested, broke up his camp and proceeded towards 

I left AVashington the difficulties between the United 
ico had increased and war was imminent. Captain Gil- 
arine Corps, had been dispatched to overtake him, with a 
iction from Mr. Buchanan, Secretary of State, some oral 

letter from Mr. Benton, Senator from Missouri. Captain 
lad crossed through Mexican territory iu the guise of an 
mt, reached the exploring party and communicated the 
lelivered the letters about the 9th of May, 184C, The 
the letter from Senator Benton and the oral messages 
u given to the public, but they made such an impression 
lemont as to induce him immediately to abandon his ex- 
loration and retrace his steps and return to California, 
lie found some of the residents in a state of insurrection 
isting government, and joining the insurgents, he raised 

battalion of soldiers for active warfare, taking command 
.\appointment from any superior organization, and acting 

;• own authority and on his own responsibility. 
1846, the revolutionists at Sonoma issued a declaration 

i declaring the country free from the dominion of Mexico, 
. a nominal government under a flag bearing the emblem 
T, which r;ave to them the name of " bear oarty." and to 
1 the !i:u'iie of "tito bear war." 

Um^' on the 13th of May, 184C, Congress had passed an 
1 issued a pi ) -'clariug that 'by t '- 



session of that nlact/ '^'^''^^^^ ^^'^ United States fl 
mont hauled down/ ^'^- ^^ ^^'^ grizzly bear an( 
own government T^ ^'"''^ "^'^^ ^^'^' ^^'^^ '^^'^ ^^ '''' . 
California from 6/"'' "' ''■'''^^' ^^ assumed to act ' 
for the benefit of/ ^^"'^^^l Jta^^'^' ,, , , ^ , " 

Commodore S/ '"^"PPosed that Colonel h remon 
orders from theA*^''""^®"^ '^^ Washington, and iina 
not the fact ii/^came alarmed at the authority ti 
which he himsA^*^^ assumed, and refused to proceec/ 
mont in his n^'^ie'ifs for the subjugation of the coi 
On the 15/'^ J^^^y^ 1840, Commodore Stockton 
afterward c/^'^'^^^'^ Sloat turned over to him the 
Pacific sqn/^" •'''*' returned home. 

Conimodr Stockton forthwith entered into arl 
Colonel Fi'i^^'it to carry on active operations for cone * 
23(1 of Ju/^8it>, appointed the latter " to the comma ' 
nia battn/" *^* United States troops, with the ran 
thus so/'' "^ ''*^ ^'**^^ authority, adopted Colonel Frt 
of voluH'"^'^ i"fo government service. By the joint <i ' 
militar-^^"^^ naval forces thus under the command ; 
Comui'®''*' Stockton, Upper California was substantially 
conqt/*^f^ for the United States before January 1, 1847 
g,.jAdier-General Ivearny had been sent out under instr 
SecB^^^'^y*^'^^ War, dated June 3 and 18, 1846,in command 
u (/ake the earliest possession of Upper California," i 
tigis set forth this direction : " Should you conquer and '[ 
opew Mexico and Upper California, or considerable ]•[ 
(i will establish temporary civil government therein j 
)iti::ai V restrictions that may exist, so far as it ma 1 
ifety."'^ ' rv 

He arrived in California, not without obstruction antl,'; 
counters with the enemy, about the 1st of January, IS f 
to be the head of the civil as well as military power of ti j 
in the Territory. This claim was opposed by Comraod -j 
the ground that he himself was the conqueror of th( < 
such, by the rules of war was entitled to establish a c 
and that the instructions given to General Kearny more 
previously, to establish such government, were cond' 
Kearny's, conquering tlie territory, and did not apply t 
dition of affairs which existed on his arrival. 

On the 10th of January, 1847, the very day on which 
gave to Colonel Fremont his first written order, in wl 
that no change be made in the organization of iiis battali 
or officpirs apnointed in it, without the sanction or a»>ni 
Kearney beiuii first oblain^d. Lieutenant Coton^i "V 
Uy apj Dinted and commissioned by Commo' , 

Md commander-inchief of tlirt Tf^rHtorv'- rf i 

— .— ^i^-^ 



and in bis I'luploynient independently of General Kearnyjas his superior 
officer. The superior authority of General Kearny was officially acknowl- 
edged in a letter from General Scott to that officer dated November 3, 
184G ; in a communication by the Secretary of the Navy to Commodore 
Stockton, November 5, 1846 ; in a letter from the Secretary of War to 
General Kearny, June 11, 1847, and in a communication from him to the 
President January 19, 1848, all officially communicated to Congress and 
l)rinted among the public documents. And, what is perhaps more decis- 
ive. Colonel Fremont was tried by a general court-martial held at Wash- 
ington in 1847 and 1848 on three charges and twenty-three speciflcations, 
among which it was charged that he proclaimed himself to be and as- 
sumed to act as governor of California, in contempt of the lawful 
authority of his superior officer, Brigadier-General Kearny; that he 
refused to march such part of his battalion to Yerba Bucjna as refused 
to be mustered into the service of the United States, tliere to be dis- 
charged, and other acts of insubordination, and he was ftiund guilty on 
all the charges and specifications, and ordered to be, dismissed the 
service. The finding of the court-martial was approvedii by the Presi- 
dent, except that he was not satisfied that the acts constifuted the mili- 
tary crime of mutiny, and the sentence was remitted,. This was a 
authoritative declaration by the President of the United States, the 
Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, that Colonell Fremont un- 
lawfully assumed to be and to act as governor of Califowiia, and that 
some of his military operations after January 16, 1847, w|re conducted 
in insubordination. And Congress has never passed ailiy act for the 1 
general settlement and payment of t)»e contracts entere(| into by him 
during that time. 






'r ^ r the pay- 
in atifies and 
I )ert F^fers to 
' 5, _^r of Cali- 
f|n,s'-^'reasury 
in benefit of 



m< 



It is true that Colonel Fremont was sued in England |n 1852 upon 
four Mils of exchairge^rawu by him as governpi^-of^^ F'-^^'^-^l-ssa; 
18, 1847, upon James Buchanar, SecretarjrxjfStatp; ^^n^ j protested foi 
non-payment; that judgment was recovered the^^on agaic' st him in the 
court of exchequer {Gihhs vs. Fremont, 9 Exch-j 25) ; and t.j liat Congress 
by act of March .3, 1853, ch, 101, made an appropriati* " •^ - -' 
ment of that judgment (10 Stat, at L„ 759); but that 
adopts no other contracts than those specified therein, 
Fremont as "late a lieutenant colonel" and not as "g( 
fornia," and provides that " before payment the Secretary 
shall be satisfied that the amount has )>een expended fi 
the public service." 

Congress might in like manner w^vide for the paym« 
■ations incurred by Colonel Fnkfwnt, which are the fou 
iction, but as it has never dotfe so, nor in any form recc 
alid and binding upon the government, the claimant h;^^ 
this court. 

The only claim earnestl' presse 1 
.rom ■gQg_note^jjich^ -^^!! l^ %?>^^i to^. 

"Eifrht »p<'^T»tbi nf'tpr ilato It J 

^' - ■ .'Ul, of tb'" 

;, Jeratiou 

kirs, being ioauod or as'- • 
.M>t or the United Stat<'i^ •>,, 
U', in ray liducituv c 
■ ic.jc. ur;^ :.i oftu-.e, to pay to .sa:' ' - . , ,i 

,. ...!,.>r „strators, aadassign.-i, the atoresaui «ur ":^ 



to 1 the obli- 

iirpn of this 

rril them as 

r)(*emedy in 

'ttt is on a 



a 



that if the aforesaid sura of two thousand five hundred dollars is noli,] 
paid on or before maturity, that it is to draw interest at the rate of tw( 
per cent, per month from the time it falls due. 

"In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused thel 
seal of the territory to be affixed at the city de Los Angeles, the capital] 
of California, t,his third day of March, in the year eighteen hundred] 
and forty-seven. 

"J. C. FRfiMONT, 

" (iovernor of California.''^ 

Tlie exact p urpose for which Colonel Fremont used the money ob 
tained upon th is note is not found by the court and was not proved be 
cause he rend< ?red no account and returned no vouchers. As he was 
carrying on a civil government the authority for which was expressly 
disavowed by the executive, and to some extent maintained a command 
in defiance of the authority of his superior officer, enlisting men and 
jcfusingto mu ster them into the United States service, for all of which 
lie could draw no money or supplies in the ordinary and legal methods 
provided in tl le service, we may presume that the money borrowed by 
him was used for purposes not recognized as legitimate by the govern- 
ment, or at le ast in the absence of proof we are not at liberty to pre- 
sume otherwi; ,e. Arid so the claimant does not stand in the position 
of having adv.- iiiced money which the United States have had the benefit 
of, if that wer« ', his claim independently of the express contract piovod by 
the promissor s note sued upon. Even if Colonel Fremont were then the 
lawful militar v governor of California, it would not necessarily follow 
that the Unit< %\ States would be liable for money borrowed by him in 
fus official cai »acity, without express proof, at least, that it was used in 
luerecognizt .-.\>iic service. (The Floyd acceptance case, 7 Wall., G66.) 

Anotner cii iim sei,„, ju the petition is for the price of GOO head of 
catt e sold to Colonel linuont under a contract of March 3, 1847. These 
cat le were d, slivered Apnt 2(J, 1847, when Fremont gave to tlie claim- 
ants nitestat a certificate of acknowledgment, certifying that there 
trom the Inited States the sum of $10,975, subject to 
^ cent, per month after the expiration of eieht months 

\n.l'«-"nrm''r''^- ^^^ t^l^imant now seeks payment of 
and ^,>,000 damages, and interest on the whole, 
relation to these cattle are that when they were de- 

^1 , oL " ,'\" "^'' *'"^ ^^'*'"' •'^"•l IJ^ turned them over to 
^e pastured for three years at the compensation of or-y 
^1 ncrease. Stearns droxe them into Lower Califori 7 
to. y and there pastured them on his own land for tue 

1 -■■ ,. • , ,■• ^"*-' ^'^l"i'yt'on of that time, Fremont beiii'' n« 

loi);jer in th( pub ic serv ce. havino- rp«io-ii«^i \.; >^^ "'"""'> "*^ "". "* 
au.l iiotbeinLrahlftl.imVJif .^ ? resigned his military comini.ssion. 

Go ernm '. n-ot ha^ r^^^^^^ "1'^' *"' ^^J" ^'''°*^' ^"'^ '^^ United States ' 
t^overnmLnt lot haMi.jj adopted or ratified bis contract, le'l-i- 

.' ; :, . :,:-. the laii"'' -^ — 

' i;ii. .■!>•- ■<•• :H\ the ■■ 

'1 less mtiu _ 

;i8 returned Vj mm, aiu: it uoe>! not aj 



was due to hi 
interest at li ] 
from April 1; 
tliMt obligati( 
'Jhe facts 
livt red to Fr; 
oiif Stearns ' 
half' their nat 
in .Mexican t' 
TiiiH^ agreed 



T 

el; 



rge Ihem, or to obey the ,^,j.g ^^^^ commands of 

ktoii was succeeded iu comma ^^ ^^^^ ix^ci^c sq,iad- 

iShubrick, who removed all ^ji^^r cause for any 

?ht on the part of Fremont to n^^.^^j^ the authority 

lander, by notifying bim iu Fe^,, 1847, that he 

al Kearny as commander-in-chief the' land forces in 

yet Fremont still continued to defy -.gnperiorauthor- 

and to assume civil power under tlij^^jg (,j- governor 

er the claims now in salt were con ^j.g j y^., \^[^ in 

' until he was obliged to yield by '[ructions from 

ch could no longer be misunderstood ^n^isconstrued 

. later he was sent home under arrest i ^jiese acts of 

ivc or superior authority among military ^^g^g j,^ ^\^q 

Derations, when a controversy arises and v,^ assumes 

ind obligations inconsistent with the authoy claimed 

;s are conclusively bound by the determine ^,j of the 

gislative branches of the government there ^s they 

.nination of those branches as to how far the 'iduct of 

- acting on their own responsibility and withe lawful 

ously conferred, is ratified, confirmed, and adc-gj i^y 

• the military operations of Colonel Fremont in t* (.Qn- 
California and the controversy between him and G^^ral 
fter, the action of the Executive and of Congres.^as 
led at the time of the occurrence and afterward, ^d 
in doubt or uncertainty respecting their true official ii^. 
vrnment of the United States, 
c ■ Colonel Fremont in raising a battalion and carrying c, 
Mexican authorities on his own responsibility at the begin 
section, andhisoperationsgenerally up to January 1, 1847, 
tid and approved. No complaint was made of his course 
^ exploring expedition upon which he had been sent out, 
jg in private warfare while holding a military commis- 
'd States Army, and he was recognized as continuously 
int of the government during the whole of his opera- 
iie voluntarily resigned. The conspicuous part which 
■buquest, and the value and usefulness of his services, 
^ed by the Secretary of War, Mr. Marcy, and declara- 
1 and commendations for his gallantry were made under 
'rity. Congress passed an act August 31, 1852 {chap. 
Stat., 108) making an appropriation for the pay and 
ad the settlement of claims for supplies for, the volun- 
nder him during the year 184G, and providing for the 
a. board of officers to examine and repirtto Congress 
'-• - v^'-c'M > r>-<^c*»r.fr.fi for fnn*1s !*«K' . >f»e<? Qnd e«b. 



and ill bis eniployiiu-nt iudept 
officer. The superior autborit.^ 
edged in a letter from Genera 
isic ; in a communication by 
Stockton, November 5, 184G ; 
Oeneral Kearny, June 11, ISIT 
President January 19, 1848, al 
printed among tbe public doci 
ive, Colonel Fremont was tried! 
ington in 1847 and 1848 on tbrel 
among wbich it was charged 1 
sumed to act as governor o1 
authority of bis superior offi 
refused to march such part of 
to be mustered into tbe servic 
charged, and other acts of inst 
all the charges and specitica 
service. Tbe finding of tbe c< 
dent, except that be was not sa 
tary crime of mutiny, and tl 
authoritative declaration by tl 
Coramauder-ia-Cbief of the An 
lawfully assumed to be and to ; 
some of his military operations 
in insubordination. And Con 
general settlement and payme 
during that time. 

It is true that Colonel Fremc 
four bills of exchange drawn 
18, 1847, upon James Buchana 

nOIf "'""" """^ ' *^'"*^ '"^omont, m; 

coil 

m( 

ac 

Fi 

f( 

sj 

tl 



I 

n 



I 



brought I'rom Mexican territory, after having been pastii) ^d there three 
years, into the United States. ' 

Against the consideration of this claim by the court t| 
torney-general sets up the plea of want of jurisdiction, oi 
of Nichols i^s. The United States (7 Wall., 122). It 



wi 



case, as we have repeatedly held, that to claims for the 



e assistant at- 
the authority 
held in that 
covery back of 
provisions are 
[d other courts, 
au/man vs. The 
\nfed States, 12 
s. The United 
;, 12 C. Cls. R., 
would be cor- 
okingthejuris- 
ed to us by an 



taxes and duties illegally assessed, for which special 
made by statute, giving jurisdiction to other tribunals a 
the general jurisdiction of this court does not attach. ( 
United States, 11 O. Cls. R., 659; Boughton vs. The t 
C. Cls. R., 330; Winnisimmet Company and other cases 
States, 12 C. Cls. R., 319; Walker vs. The United State 
408). And the position of the assistant attorney-gener; 
rectif the claimant were hereof his motion voluntarily mi 
diction of the court. But this claim was specially refer 
order of the Senate of the United States under that ptovision of the 
statute which expressly confers jurisdiction upon this j »ourt over "all 
claims which may be referred to it by either House of Opngress." (Act 
ofFehriiarxj 24, 1855, ch. 122, § 1, 10 Stat., 612, now Revim Stat, § 1059.) 
Upon the question whether or not we have jurisdictioijlof such a claim 
thus referred to us, it is unnecessary now to express a ^pal opinion, be- 
cause there are two substantial grounds of-defence on tiie merits which 
have been fully argued, while the jurisdictional questi^ju was not con- 
sidered by the claimant's counsel at the trial. First, thejduties must be 
held to have been voluntarily paid, no protest or objectim having been 
proved (Revised Statutes, § 3010-3014, and the acts hvised therein)-, 
and, second, it does not appear that they were not legaj'y and properly 
assessed and collected. The claimant's intestate ownji the cattle in 
Mexican territory and regularly imported them into th^ United States, 
and th©cebyl»ecame liable to pay duties thereon, evep^aJlhough they 
had previously been in this country. {Customs Regulfions, Treasury 
Department, 1874, Articles 373 378, and like regulation^ and laics pre- 
viously existing.) f ' 



On the whole case the claimant has no legal cause o 
petition must be dismissed. 

No. 1785 2 



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